Brexit’s impact on TT business may be minimal

She was speaking last week at a forum for companies which have just returned from what appeared to be a largely successful trip to several European countries to look into the prospects of increasing trade with the European Union.

She said Brexit will not happen in less than a year and in the short term at least the UK will still be a part of the European Union.

However, she said that in the long term Trinidadian firms will no longer have the UK as an ally in negotiations with Europe, pointing out that the UK is like a “mother nation” to Trinidad and Tobago and the rest of the Caribbean because of the Commonwealth relationship.

She said the absence of that relationship might be a challenge in the long term, meaning in the next 20 or 30 years when the trading agreement might need to be renegotiated.

The forum involved representatives of businesses which went on a recent market penetration trade mission to Europe titled “Fit 4 Europe” organised by the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and exporTT, under the Economic Partnership Agreement Standby Facility for Capacity Building designed to develop the export readiness of this country’s enterprises to take advantage of opportunities in the European market.

A selected group of the participants related their experiences, many telling of successes in getting their products into highend stores and boutiques in London and other European cities.

They stressed the importance of planning for the trip and visiting the potential markets in person.

Speaker after speaker made the point that it was not enough to send e-mails and make telephone calls because the shopowners and buyers on the other end received so many emails and calls from would-be suppliers that they just did not have time to respond.

However, they said a personal visit, during which they had a chance to develop a relationship with the store owner or buyer, often made the difference. One designer, Arielle Holdip of Zaveza Afrocentric Accessories, said she had sent many emails to one store but got no responses.

However, she said that during the trip she visited the boutique and during a conversation, the owner remembered receiving her emails but confessed that he just had not had the time to respond.

She said that conversation ended with agreement to place some of her products in the shop.

Another businesswoman, Rachel Rochford of rachelrochford.

com related how, with no appointment, she wandered into a boutique in the chic Soho district in London and struck up a conversation with a woman in a store.

She said after a pleasant conversation during which the woman recognised that she was a designer and asked to see some of her work, the woman, who turned out to be the owner of the store, ended up agreeing to take some of her designs to sell in her shop.