CARIFORUM member states and the United Kingdom have officially signed the CARIFORUM-United Kingdom Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The agreement has been in the making since 2017 and seeks to remove taxes on exports from the CARIFORUM member states to the United Kingdom to make the products more competitive.

The arrangement between the CARIFORUM and the United Kingdom is a reaction to the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

Chair of CARICOM and Minister of Commerce, International Trade and Investment, Enterprise Development and Consumer Affairs in Saint Lucia, Hon. Bradley Felix, explained that the CARIFORUM recognizes the importance of securing the existing trade arrangements and avoiding disruption of the preferential trading agreement.

“The UK is our largest trading partner in the European Union as it currently absorbs 25 percent of the region’s total exports to Europe,” he said. “With regard to service and investment, the UK has provided significant guarantees and many opportunities for our exporters. We are committed to working closely with the United Kingdom to ensure that our service providers can take further advantage of this market.”

The United Kingdom is scheduled to exit the European Union on March 29

 Honorable George Hollingbery, the Minister of State for Trade Policy, in the UK Department of International Trade, said the EPA allows for trade to continue, post-Brexit.

“Today’s signing is a very important moment for all of our nations, recognizing as it does the importance of allowing trade between CARIFORUM and the United Kingdom to continue post Brexit, whatever those circumstances may be,” he said. “Our nations have traded for a long time, they’ve traded profitably. Our consumers really on many of the products that our relationship allows to cross borders and I am incredibly pleased to be here today to allow the signing of the agreement to allow that to continue as it always had.”

Saint Lucia was among the nine-member states of CARIFORUM, which together with the United Kingdom signed the agreement on Friday March 22, 2019.