Brexit: Avoiding a Caribbean hangover
The UK’s leaving the European Union at the end of March 2019, will have consequences well beyond its shores, with the economic repercussions felt across the world. Amongst the countries that are likely to be most acutely affected are the small States of the Caribbean that belong to the Commonwealth. For almost forty years, much of their trade and development cooperation with the UK has been within the regulatory and institutional framework of its EU membership.
This initially was under the Lomé, then the Cotonou Agreement and now the Cariforum-EU Economic Partnership Agreement that was signed in 2008. The Agreements made it possible for Caribbean exports to enter the UK, free of duties and quotas. In addition, they have provided the Caribbean with substantial and vitally important financial and technical assistance under the European Development Fund. Immediately upon leaving, all those EU economic arrangements and treaties will automatically cease to apply to, or be applied by the UK. Hence unless replacement preferential trade and aid measures can be put in place to come into effect on the day after Brexit, Caribbean exports and development aid will suffer. This discussion will explore and assess the range of direct and indirect economic consequences of Brexit and the policy choices and strategy that can be pursued by the UK, the EU and the Caribbean countries themselves, to safeguard their interests and avoid becoming victims of Brexit.
Edwin Laurent SLE. OBE. CMG. is Director of the Ramphal Institute and Senior Visiting Research Fellow, King’s College London who was Contract Manager and Quality Controller of the just concluded CARIFORUM capacity building programme in Competition, Procurement and Customs and Trade Facilitation. Prior to that he was Senior Adviser to UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative for the Caribbean that sought to promote a holistic approach to policy making in, and management of, sustainable development.
He served for seven years at the Commonwealth Secretariat, where he was Head of International Trade and Regional Co-operation. He has held various diplomatic postings including: Ambassador to France, Germany and Belgium; Permanent Representative to the EU, WTO, FAO and OPCW, and was Special Envoy of the Heads of Government of Dominica, St Lucia and St Vincent.
He was educated at the Universities of the West Indies, Manchester and the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies and has lectured in Central and West Africa countries and in the Caribbean on Trade and multilateral negotiations and written and published extensively on trade and development issues. He began his career at St Lucia’s Ministry of Finance, later becoming Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Trade Industry and Tourism. In 2013 he was awarded the St Lucia Cross for services to development.