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News
UK and Caribbean sign post-Brexit trade deal
Rum producers will benefit from a trade continuity agreement between the UK and Caribbean countries, which has been signed as part of ministers’ Brexit preparations.
64% of Jamaican sugarcane exports went to the UK in 2017
Last Friday (22 March), the UK minister of state for trade policy, George Hollingbery, signed the Cariforum-UK Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with ministers and representatives from Barbados, Belize, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, the Republic of Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
The deal ensures that businesses across the Caribbean will be able to continue to trade without barriers or tariffs. The agreement eliminates all tariffs on all goods imported to the UK from the Caribbean countries, while these Caribbean states will continue to gradually cut import tariffs on most of the region’s imports from the UK.
The new Cariforum-UK EPA replicates the existing trading arrangements as far as possible and is expected to come into effect as soon as the implementation period ends in January 2021, or from as soon as possible after the UK leaves the EU in a no-deal scenario.
The UK is a key export market for the Caribbean. In 2017, around 81% of Guyana sugarcane exports and 64% of Jamaican sugarcane exports went to the UK.
In 2017, total trade between the UK and the Caribbean was worth approximately £2.5 billion (US$3.3bn).
Based on current trade flows, exporters of sugarcane and other sugar products could save more than £20 million (US$26.3m) a year in tariff charges.
Trade body the West Indies Rum & Spirits Producers Association (WISPA) has welcomed the news.
Komal Samaroo, chairman of the WIRSPA, and head of the Guyana-based Demerara Distillers conglomerate, said: “We’re extremely happy to see the culmination of this agreement which both sides have worked hard to achieve.
“The UK is a major export destination for our rums and we are pleased that the trade provisions will maintain our continued access to that market.
“The rum industry is the region’s premier export industry and its largest export earner after minerals, as well as a significant employer.
“The preferential provisions in the agreement will continue to give our authentic rum producers a much-needed boost vis-à-vis subsidised products from other countries.”
The deal also covers the services sector, including tourism, which will benefit Brits who spend a combined £900 million (US$1.1bn) a year in the Caribbean.