UK to expand trade with Caribbean post-Brexit – Quinn says

By Shemuel Fanfair

The United Kingdom’s Department for Exiting the European Union has recently confirmed that negotiations to leave the bloc will begin today, June 19. However, concerns have once again surfaced over the country’s financial commitment to developmental projects and aid it funded in Guyana and the wider Caribbean. However, according to British High Commissioner Greg Quinn, his country is seeking to broaden trade with the Caribbean region in the near future.
“What is very clear is that the UK wants to expand and increase its activity and its trading relationship and range of trading partners, so the message to take from that is that there is going to be a push actually to expand the relationship with all of the countries and all of the organisations in all of the regions we trade with, and that includes Guyana both as a bilateral relationship and also as a member of Caricom and the Commonwealth,” the UK High Commissioner stressed.
Quinn confirmed this approach at the sidelines of his country’s renewed sovereignty claims over the Falklands Islands when a member of the territory’s Legislative Assembly visited Guyana last week. The Ambassador told media operatives at his residence in Georgetown that while the UK will soon embark upon new trade talks, it will be some time before the country officially leaves the 28-member bloc.
“Don’t forget the fact that we still remain a member of the European Union until we physically leave, so our ability to negotiate separate agreements is very restricted, because we can’t do anything which goes against the EU; but certainly, there’s a lot of consideration being given within the UK as to what the relationship globally on trade will be once we leave,” Quinn committed.
He indicated that Britain would continue to lend its support to the Caribbean, and further noted that it is unlikely that funding for projects would be reduced. Some projects are being funded by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
“If you look at the assistance which is coming to Guyana from the UK now compared to 5 (or) 10 years ago, it is significantly larger. We have got the 53-million-pound (sterling) worth Caribbean Infrastructure Fund, and there’s another 8 million pounds funding, an increase in FCO funding,” he noted.
When further questioned, the High Commissioner highlighted that it is not too early to know what financial changes in funding the region could expect from the EU when his country leaves.
“On the bilateral front, I don’t expect in any way, shape or form, any change on that, [but] to be honest, it’s too early for us to really know what will happen multilaterally with EU funding. I don’t think we’re in a position to talk about that at this precise moment in time; but certainly, on a bilateral front, there is no indication or suggestion that the assistance will (be reduced),” Quinn affirmed.
Earlier this month, the British High Commissioner told <<Guyana Times>> that support and country relations would remain strong despite whichever candidate had won the June 8 elections. Though Prime Minister Theresa May was re-elected to the post, her party amassed fewer seats, losing its majority in the British Parliament. Some reports had suggested that EU exit talks could be stalled. However, from all indications, it is expected that the country’s government will honour the will of those who voted in the 2016 referendum for Britain to leave the EU.
Following the country’s decision to exit the bloc, Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge posited that nothing was expected to change. And Caricom Secretary General Irwin LaRocque had also pointed out in June 2016 that he did not foresee Brexit having a drastic impact on relations with Caribbean States.
“I don’t anticipate our relationship in terms of Europe to be directly affected… We don’t anticipate any diminishing of relationship of the EU, and certainly not the UK; our relations are very strong,” he stressed last year.
It is anticipated that Brexit negotiations will take as much as two years to complete.