Brexit can end exploitation of poor nations: Scholar
The UK should push ahead with Brexit so that it can revise the way it conducts trade with poor nations, says a British scholar, warning that the current situation makes it possible for those countries to be ripped off.
Dr. Rodney Shakespeare, a professor of economy, made the remarks while discussing a report about the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union and its impacts on poor countries that rely heavily on the British market.
Malawi and Bangladesh are two of the least developed nations that are bound to lose at least £323 million each year if the UK does not guarantee the existing trade terms with them before Brexit, the independent Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in London said in a report.
Titled Post-Brexit Trade Policy and Development, the report warned that although the UK was trying to seize every opportunity and deal with challenges posed by Brexit, it has shown little consideration for the moral duty it has to avoid harming people living in developing countries.
Nearly 30 percent of the exports out of the Central American country of Belize are destined for the UK. For Bangladesh, the number stands at around 9 percent of overall exports.
“There is a huge hypocrisy in this comment using the situation of countries like Bangladesh to say that Brexit must not go ahead,” Shakespeare told Press TV on Sunday.
He called for a reconsideration of the current deals, arguing that they provided the grounds for more exploitation of rules.
“So when we look at the consequences of Brexit for the poorer countries, we will still be able to negotiate individual agreements with them again,” he said.
“I do hope that those who are essentially hoping to maintain the status quo at this moment, will remember that the status quo very often amounts to an absolute disgusting rip-off of the poorer countries in one way or another,” he further argued.
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