A meeting between Trade Minister Greg Hands and representatives of the 15-member CARIFORUM group of countries has resulted in agreement to discuss future trade ties in more detail.
The CARIFORUM States are: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Bilateral trade between the group and the UK was worth more than £2 billion last year.
That trade is, however, currently subject to the provisions of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and CARIFORUM, which was signed in 2008. As long as the UK remains a member of the EU, that agreement will continue to apply.
With Brexit looming ever larger on the horizon, the Government is seeking to make sure that trade with CARIFORUM members will continue when the UK leaves the EU.
CARIFORUM Ministers reportedly welcomed both the UK’s commitment to the existing CARIFORUM-EU EPA and the Government’s stated intention to avoid disruption for its trading partners during the Brexit process.
They were also said to have appreciated the UK’s desire to maintain current market access to the UK post-Brexit.
At the meeting, the two sides agreed to explore ways in which the existing trade arrangement between the UK and the CARIFORUM States can continue, describing the initiative as “a technical exercise to ensure continuity in the preferential trading relationship, rather than an opportunity to renegotiate existing terms”.
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