Commonwealth represents global opportunity for GIBRALTAR

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 Thursday, April 4, 2019 - 09:46 Mark Viales

Remainers across the UK fear that any new free-trade agreements struck with Commonwealth nations would not soften the economic blow of a no deal Brexit.

A former prime minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, recently told the Guardian that the Commonwealth substituting Britain’s current economic arrangements with Brussels was ‘an illusion’. 

“The bottom line is that 65 million Commonwealth citizens do not come within a bull’s roar of Britain’s adjacent market of 450 million Europeans,” he said.

But Gibraltar’s business is largely conducted with the UK, so strengthening ties with ‘the family of nations’ could potentially represent a global opportunity for the Rock.

The Government’s deal to ensure that Gibraltar-UK business would continue operating under the status quo, regardless of any Brexit eventuality, provides a crucial safety net.

New advances in technology could play a key role in developing a more proactive relationship between the Rock and the Commonwealth, which perhaps may bear even more fruits than the EU.

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04-04-19 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR