Bridgetown, BAR­BA­DOS (Caribbean Ex­port) — A high-lev­el vir­tu­al sum­mit tak­ing place on 24 No­vem­ber will help Caribbean and UK busi­ness­es cap­i­talise on trade and in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties un­der the re­cent Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ship Agree­ment (EPA) be­tween the UK and 14 Caribbean coun­tries in the Caribbean Fo­rum (CAR­I­FO­RUM).

The Caribbean Ex­port De­vel­op­ment Agency (Caribbean Ex­port) in part­ner­ship with the UK De­part­ment of In­ter­na­tion­al Trade will host the vir­tu­al sum­mit, bring­ing to­geth­er busi­ness­es, in­vestors and trade pro­mo­tion ex­perts to ex­plore do­ing busi­ness un­der the CAR­I­FO­RUM-UK EPA. There will be pre­sen­ta­tions from the Prime Min­is­ter of Bar­ba­dos, the Ho­n­ourable Mia Amor Mot­t­ley; UK Min­is­ter for In­ter­na­tion­al Trade, Ranil Jayawar­de­na; and Her Majesty’s Trade Com­mis­sion­er for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, Jonathan Knott.

“This event marks the be­gin­ning of a new chap­ter in the trade and in­vest­ment re­la­tion­ship be­tween the Caribbean and the UK. The agree­ment of­fers huge op­por­tu­ni­ties for busi­ness­es on both sides of the At­lantic and will help cre­ate jobs,” said De­o­dat Ma­haraj, Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor of Caribbean Ex­port.

“The Caribbean Ex­port De­vel­op­ment Agency, as the lead re­gion­al in­sti­tu­tion for pro­mot­ing Caribbean trade glob­al­ly and steer­ing in­vest­ments, is pleased to sup­port this ini­tia­tive and ex­cit­ed with the high in­ter­est shown by the pri­vate sec­tor across our re­gion. We are com­mit­ted to build­ing on this foun­da­tion,” he con­tin­ued.

The CAR­I­FO­RUM-UK EPA, which came in­to ef­fect on 1 Jan­u­ary 2020, se­cures con­ti­nu­ity for trade and preser­va­tion of mar­ket ac­cess be­tween CAR­I­FO­RUM and the UK, pro­vid­ing pre­dictabil­i­ty and vi­tal as­sur­ance to busi­ness­es, con­sumers and in­vestors. With a bi­lat­er­al trad­ing re­la­tion­ship of GBP £2.9 bil­lion in 2020, the new EPA pro­vides a plat­form to deep­en and forge even clos­er trade ties be­tween UK and Caribbean busi­ness­es.

Her Majesty’s Trade Com­mis­sion­er for Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, Jonathan Knott said: “This sum­mit is yet an­oth­er key mile­stone in our im­ple­men­ta­tion of the EPA, as the UK strength­ens our trade and in­vest­ment re­la­tion­ship with our Caribbean part­ners. We want to make this a liv­ing trade agree­ment for ex­porters and in­vestors, in­creas­ing busi­ness-to-busi­ness con­nec­tions, and set­ting the stage for a mod­ern and pros­per­ous trad­ing re­la­tion­ship with the Caribbean re­gion.

“The UK looks for­ward to con­tin­ue work­ing with our Caribbean part­ners. We may be sep­a­rat­ed by thou­sands of miles, but we are unit­ed in our shared trade as­pi­ra­tions, val­ues and friend­ship,” he added.

The Sum­mit fol­lows the in­au­gur­al meet­ing of the CAR­I­FO­RUM-UK EPA’s Min­is­te­r­i­al Joint Coun­cil, sched­uled for 22 No­vem­ber. Se­nior of­fi­cials from the UK and all CAR­I­FO­RUM States held a suc­cess­ful first meet­ing of the EPA’s Trade and De­vel­op­ment Com­mit­tee in Oc­to­ber.

Caribbean Ex­port will present key find­ings of a re­cent study on CAR­I­FO­RUM-UK trade trends and op­por­tu­ni­ties. The CAR­I­FO­RUM Di­rec­torate and the UK De­part­ment for In­ter­na­tion­al Trade will pro­vide an up­date on the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the EPA for trade-re­lat­ed growth and de­vel­op­ment. Caribbean and UK busi­ness lead­ers will dis­cuss trad­ing goods and ser­vices un­der the EPA in key sec­tors.

Reg­is­ter for the event, here… https://www.carib-ex­port.com/car­i­fo­rum-uk-epa-sum­mit/