Barbados and the Caribbean should not expect any benefits flowing their way once the UK leaves the European Union. Former Prime Minister, Professor Owen Arthur stated this during a lecture at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. The lecture was titled, “Brexit and and the New Caribbean Trade Agenda”.
Professor Arthur also drew on how the Caribbean has performed in terms of trade with both the UK and the EU, especially following the completion of the Economic Partnership Agreement. Arthur, who is Professor of Practice at the UWI, said that the UK thinks that having quit the EU it will be able to pursue independent and commercial ties that will cause it to forge new relationships with powerful economies in a way that is not now possible under its current membership with Europe.
If that is the logic behind Brexit, the Professor stated then that the Caribbean will hardly occupy any special place on the UK’s trade agenda radar once it leaves the EU. He suggested that after Brexit the Caribbean should look to amend the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) clause that now exists in the CARIFORUM Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe.
Prof Arthur, who was Barbados’ Prime Minister when the EPA was concluded in December 2007, explained that the EU is to grant African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries any more favourable treatment than that region grants to third parties.
However, the ACP will have only to extend to the EU any more favourable treatment given to a major trading partner in a free trade agreement.
Arthur also said that since the conclusion of the EPA, exports from Barbados Caribbean countries to both the UK and the EU have declined. From available evidence, at least eight countries have recorded a decline in tourism exports trade with the UK.
He told the audience that the value of UK imports from Barbados and Caribbean has fallen from 662 million pounds in 2008 to 449 million pounds in 2017. As for trade with the Europe, the EU exports to the Caribbean have increased from 1.5 billion euros in 2008 to 1.6 billion in 2017.
Source: barbadosadvocate.com
