Before the end of this month, Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, will invoke article 50 of the European Treaty, starting a process that will lead to the UK leaving the European Union (EU) in 2019. The precise timing of the announcement is unclear, but what is not in doubt is that it will create uncertainty for every country with which the UK has a trade relationship.
This is because, irrespective of the informal private conversations that British Ministers have had in recent months with all trade and development partners including the Caribbean, the process has so many inter-dependent political and economic parts that no one can guess the trajectory or outcome of negotiations with any certainty. Despite this, nothing practically will change in relation to trade with third nations, until either