Letter of the Day | Will Brexit benefit or damage Jamaica?

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Britain now has a mandated prime minister in the person of Boris Johnson. He took the electoral bet to the voters and won by a landslide victory. What does this mean now for Britain? It means Britain truly wants to be liberated from the European Union, according to Prime Minister Johnson.

Almost 80 per cent of the vote was captured by the Conservative Party in the recent election held on December 12, 2019, leaving the Labour Party to lick their wound. But what does this mean for Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean?

Boris Johnson will now seek to wrestle Britain from the clutches of the European Union’s hands. He might determine the free sanctioning of immigration laws, tougher trade laws, that might cripple our trade market with Britain, and who knows what.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s mandate is to get Britain free from the European Union. So Boris Johnson has been returned to number 10 Downing Street. This has been the biggest political victory for the Conservative Party since the 1980s.

Jamaica, more than ever, needs to strengthen its ties with Prime Minister Johnson and Britain, and to do so soon, so Jamaica can be among those powerhouse countries which will be seeking to forge ties with Britain.

Will there be any place left for us as small Caribbean traders to ply our goods and services? Jamaica, along with other Caribbean countries, need to find a niche in this deep trade waters, where all those other big fishes will be swimming towards Britain, to seek their share of the trade market pie.

WAIT AND SEE

Will Jamaica and the Caribbean be blessed with trade incentives that will grant them competitiveness in the new single market space to be created, when Britain finally leaves the European Union? This my friends, is food for thought, by those of the governing administration, private sector organisations, manufacturers and other players in the international economic market space, as it relates to our economic survival.

We will only have to wait and see what the next move will be, and what Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his newly elected team will be putting on the political/trade table for all to grab.

ALRICK DAVIS

Justice of the Peace