High commissioner provides Brexit reassurance

Britain's high commissioner to South Africa, Nigel Casey, has eased concerns over the potential impact of Brexit on South African traders, saying the country is of extreme importance to the United Kingdom and that plans are in place for growing imports and exports in the future. Casey said there was no denying the challenges or uncertainties caused by Brexit, but rather emphasised the importance of South Africa as a trading partner for the UK. “This is a very important relationship for us,” he told a group of exporters, importers, trade financiers and logistics experts in Cape Town. “We buy iconic products from the Western Cape and South Africa. Our supermarket shelves have grown with South African products and the popularity of these continue to increase.” He said a lot of effort had been made during the past two years by both the South African and British governments to safeguard South Africa’s current interests post-Brexit,
but they also had to look towards the future. “We do not just want to defend our current relationship with South Africa, but want to build on it going forward,” said Casey. Most recently a digital hub had been opened in the local British Consulate, he said, as moves were made to grow the technological relationship between the two countries. “There are many areas where we can see expansion happening.” Casey assured traders that the underlying principle in all their negotiations to date with South Africa around Brexit and its impact locally had been to do no harm. “We want to avoid any disruption to our relationship,” he said. “Also, we want to look at the upside and see where the potential lies for increased trade. There is a high degree of complementarity in UK/ SA trade.” Casey said due to the inability to sign any new trade deals until such time as the UK had officially left the European Union it was not possible to say to what extent its relationship with South Africa would grow,
but it was a discussion that was on the table and would be picked up when “the UK is no longer a member of the EU and the importance of defending the EU position is reduced as we can then expand in other areas”. Commenting on visa regulations for South Africans visiting the UK, Casey said visas had not formed part of any of the Brexit negotiations. “One does not have visas in a country for fun or to make money, but rather as
a tool for governments to use when there is disorderly migration,” he said. According to Casey, while this did not apply to South Africa, questions remained around document security that had become problematic. “In the meantime we are trying to make the customer experience as easy as possible,” said Casey. This included digitalising the process as much as possible through Access UK.
“We have just launched  a new service that allows one to book a visa application centre appointment, and scan and upload supporting documentation online,” said Casey. This means visa applicants no longer have to submit original documentation, although customers will still need to provide their passports. Casey said this service was also available in Lesotho and eSwatini.