Caribbean will not come to an end because of Brexit – Chairman
Following two days of intense discussions among regional leaders on various matters of mutual interest
Chairman of the Conference of Caricom Heads, Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit and President David Granger
, including the most recent international event – Brexit, Chairman of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, has declared that the United Kingdom leaving the European Union (EU) will not be the end of the Caribbean.
He was at the time responding to questions from the media at the end of the regional high-level conference late Wednesday evening.
According to Prime Minister Skerrit, while the fall out between the UK and the EU came as a surprise to the world, he believes that in time, the situation will stablise.
“Let us not make it look like the Caribbean Community will come to an end or we will cease to exist or there will be no trade taking place as a result of Brexit,” he stressed.
Moreover, the Chairman noted that during the meetings, Brexit was discussed extensively.
In fact, he noted that the Caricom Secretariat’s advisor on foreign policy has prepared an extensive report on all of the issues relative to the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the EU.
Skerrit outlined that this is an evolving process and there is nothing that the Caribbean can do to deal with the issue. He added that there will have to be a negotiating process between the EU and the UK.
“So one will have to wait to see what will be the ultimate or end result of negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union,” he remarked.
The Dominican Prime Minister added that the negotiation is an ongoing process and only after these are completed, then the region can be able to assess what implications Brexit will have it.
He noted, like the St Lucian and St Vincent Prime Ministers said, Caricom needs to position itself to be at less of a disadvantage as a result of the action of the British people.
Nevertheless, the Chairman pointed out that the Caricom will continue to have excellent relations with the UK on its own and will now be working to build new relations with the EU minus the UK.
“We have had extensive and traditional relations with the United Kingdom. From our perspective, the United Kingdom was a trusted and known advocate for the Caribbean Community within the Councils for the European Union. They not being there, then we will have to identify one of our tradition European Union friends – whether it’s Germany or France or Netherlands – to continue to advocate matters of concern to us,” the Chairman remarked.
Questioned as to whether Caricom is preparing to capitalize from Brexit, Prime Minister Skerrit reiterated that they will have to wait until the final negotiations are made and determined to know what will be there for the Caribbean to benefit from.
“We have no control over the negotiations… there have been bantering in the public domain between European officials and British officials but one will have to wait,” he remarked.
Nevertheless, the Chairman maintained that the situation will stablise and then Caricom will be in the position to determine what are the new arrangements so that it can build relations with the UK and plan out a special relationship with the EU.
On the other hand, even President David Granger pointed out to reporters that it is too soon for the Caricom to say how Brexit will impact the Region since there is still confusion within the UK as to the implications of them leaving the economic body.
“Although the situation unfolds daily, we in the Caribbean Community are confident that the UK and the EU will remain strong and valued partners of the community,” he added.
