CARIFORUM and UK EPA Study

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Under the Caribbean Export Development Agency’s mandate to support the private sector in the CARIFORUM though export promotion and development programmes, it has been pursuing strategies focused on promotion of higher value added in exports as well as leveraging technologies to aid the private sector, in terms of new materials, techniques and business models. A key consideration behind this is sustainability for the region by addressing issues of resilience and, as such, address issues in the blue and green economy. Against this mandate, therefore, it is critical to understand the implications of the CARIFORUM-UK EPA (CF-UK EPA) for trade and private sector development, given the implications of BREXIT, which may not all at once be obvious. Against this background this study was conceived to comprehensively draw on available data and information, not only on bilateral trade flows, but also on specific characteristics of the CARIFORUM partner countries both in terms of their comparative advantage, composition of trade, integration in global value chains and productive capacities to accomplish two main objectives: • Complete a full review of the opportunities and challenges for the CARIFORUM private sector for expanding trade and investment with the UK under the CARIFORUM-UK EPA for both goods and service providers. • Consider how the CARIFORUM-UK EPA can increase sustainable and inclusive trade, noting the barriers that can impede this.

Trade

CARIFORUM goods and services surplus with the UK declined overall over the period. With a positive trade balance in merchandise trade in favour of the UK at the end of 2020. CF, therefore, has been exporting less goods to the UK, than it imports from the UK, to the benefit of UK exporters. Some CF exporters, however, show positive merchandise trade balances with the UK.

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