South Africa’s ready response to Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) will see very little disruption to trade come 2019. This is according to Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry, who told the Exporters’ Club Western Cape recently that the current economic partnership agreement with the EU would be the template for the arrangement with the United Kingdom following Brexit. “This is a fairly good news story for South Africa because we realised the implications of Brexit for us and went to the UK very early,” he said. “This has benefited us tremendously. Our first meetings were held before they had even settled in their offices.” Davies said that, given the complexity of issues surrounding Brexit, it wasn’t a case of just changing EU to UK in the agreement. “We will have to set new quotas with the UK, but we are very positive about the progress that has been made and our ongoing talks and discussions are going reasonably well.” He said regardless of whether it was a hard or soft Brexit, South Africa seemed to be in an advantageous position. “We don’t foresee any interruption in our trade with the UK at all.”
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We will have to set new quotas with the UK, but we are very positive about the progress that has been made. – Rob Davies
