Briefing reporters on work being done regarding preferential trade arrangements after the British exit (Brexit) from the European Union (EU) after 45 years in the economic group, South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said much progress has been made between the SACU, Mozambique and London.
The United Kingdom is scheduled to leave the EU on 29 March, but has one year to negotiate its way out of the union.
As part of SACU, South Africa together with Mozambique, have been working with the British government to try to negotiate an arrangement so that, should there be a “hard” Brexit (without an agreement), “then we would have an agreement in place that would ensure that there’s no interruption of our existing trade arrangements,” Davies said.
“We have reached an agreement on a huge number of issues. We agreed to the rollover of the EPA (Economic Partnership Agreements with the EU) on a bilateral basis,” he said at the briefing held in Cape Town.
The briefing comes after British Members of Parliament on Tuesday voted against Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement between the EU and the UK.