Brexit and the UK‐Africa Caribbean and Pacific Aid Relationship

Sophia Price

Global Policy, 2018, vol. 9, issue 3, 420-428

Abstract: Debates about Brexit draw on powerful discursive mechanisms that have important implications for the UK–Africa, Caribbean and Pacific aid relationship. Some of these narratives can be characterized in the following ways: first, that Brexit is an opportunity to recreate a Global Britain after a period of EU membership that saw the UK neglect its former partners, particularly the Commonwealth. Second, the costs of EU membership are profligate and these funds could be better utilized by the national government. Third the Brexit ‘divorce bill’ is a penalty exacted by the EU for the UK's decision to leave. This article explores these claims via the EU‐ACP relationship, and proposes three counter arguments. First, the discourse of ‘neglect’ overlooks the external relationships the UK has maintained through EU membership. Second, these relationships have provided ‘value for money’ for the UK. Third, these contributions represent a significant proportion of the Brexit ‘divorce bill’ and are on‐going financial commitments that the UK was central in establishing. The article then reviews the potential impact of Brexit on UK aid, arguing that rather than reinvigorating Global Britain Brexit threatens to undermine the UK's position in global development, current levels of aid and longstanding commitments to eradicate poverty.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12558

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:glopol:v:9:y:2018:i:3:p:420-428

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=1758-5880

Access Statistics for this article

Global Policy is currently edited by David Held, Patrick Dunleavy and Eva-Maria Nag

More articles in Global Policy from London School of Economics and Political Science Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().