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Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith, says the technical work for the rollover of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) into a new CARIFORUM-United Kingdom (UK) trade arrangement post-Brexit is close to being finalised.

“I will join my CARIFORUM colleagues and UK trade officials in St Lucia towards the end of this month, when we hope to finalize the terms so that all Parties to the Agreement have sufficient time to finalise their domestic processes to give effect to a CARIFORUM-UK EPA by March 30th 2019, i.e. Brexit plus day one! Minister Johnson Smith noted.

Johnson Smith further explained that “the EU remains an important trade partners for Jamaica so the CARIFORUM / EU EPA will continue to be the framework for trade with the EU (EU27) after Brexit. We are therefore working towards its ratification, improvement of its implementation, and to call for entrepreneurs to look for opportunities for trading with the EU.”

The Foreign Minister concluded her statements in this matter stating, “I want to assure Jamaica including our Private Sector partners that their Foreign Ministry is working to ensure that we preserve certainty for them in respect of trade with the UK – on the day after Brexit, whether or not there is a “hard” or “soft” deal.”

Johnson Smith was addressing the media at the quarterly press briefing at the ministry’s Dominica Drive headquarters in New Kingston on Wednesday.

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