24 Apr 2017

 Botswana is due to continue benefiting from cooperation with the European Union (EU) despite uncertainty from the United Kingdom’s decision to exit the European common market.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Botswana heads of missions conference in Gaborone recently, the Ambassador to Belgium and the European Union, Mr Samuel Outlule said the country’s trading agreements with the EU were still in effect, and that the legal aspects of British separation (‘Brexit’) were still to be ascertained.

“Of course there are a lot of questions that are still to be answered because the relationship evolved for over 40 years, hence there has been a number of laws and regulatory arrangements with regard to trade. So we are still to know if the agreements of separation will not disrupt the existing commercial and economic relations,” he said.
Mr Outlule said over the years, Botswana has had a long partnership and cooperation with the EU, and that the benefitted from the beef market under the cooperation because the EU offered high prices which had been the case for considerable amount of time up to now.

He said other arrangements included the stabilisation export that Botswana had benefited from over the years as well as other resources that were made available to a number of development programmes for the country.
“Therefore the decision by UK to leave the EU comes at a time when the EU has developed as a union to a very high level of integration. As you may be aware, there is a single market that the European Commission has substantial authority to act on behalf of the member states,” Ambassador Outlule said.

He said the UK would still be negotiating with EU, but he could not ascertain what the nature of the relationship would be.
He said for the UK to continue enjoying the single market, it would take the other 27 countries to decide on the terms of the relationship.
“We are looking at what it means for us as individual countries. We should understand what trade arrangements we had with the UK as we deal with the legal aspects of the UK’s exit and economic partnership elements of their participation with us. I guess we would both not wish that our trading arrangements be disrupted,” he said.

Mr Outlule said UK continued to contribute to the European Development Fund, the funds he said were important to other programmes that were also benefitting Botswana and fellow member states of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of states.
Such programmes include the National Indicative Programme, and the UK as a member of the EU contributes to their facilitation as a signatory of the economic partnership that was signed in Botswana last year.
The UK was party to the agreement, until Brexit, which Mr Outlule said had created uncertainty because the UK must first deal with elements of separation from EU.

He, however, said Botswana was aware of the matter and was collaborating with SADC Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) group of states such as Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Namibia and Lesotho to engage.
At the level of the SACU secretariat, Mr Outlule said they were looking at the relevant aspects required to be addressed with regards to the matter.
He, however, acknowledged that SACU had an interest in the UK and did not wish to see the trade partnership disrupted.
Ambassador Outlule further said although Botswana had a historical relationship with the EU as she became its member under the provision for countries under UK may be admitted to join the EU, it was not clear yet as to what the implications of UK leaving the EU would be on Botswana.

“Of course as the ACP group of states, at the time when UK was coming in the EU, we knew what we were coming into, with regards to the modalities of the partnership. You may be aware that through the partnership, we had access to the European Commission market,” he said. ENDS