Briefing Paper

Brexit: An Assessment of Zambia UK Trade & Investment Relations

In this policy brief, we provide some cursory analysis of the ramifications of Brexit on Zambia’s trade relations with the UK. We also go a step further and provide the likely ramifications of Brexit on investment relations between Zambia and the UK. The employment creation, capital formation, economic growth and technological and skills spillover effects that can be derived from foreign direct investments (FDI) makes the impact of Brexit on UK investments in Zambia a topic of equal importance. The rest of the paper proceeds as follows: In Section 2, we outline the Brexit withdrawal process and the two distinct possible Brexit outcomes – ‘deal’ or ‘no deal’. Section 3 analyses the extent of Zambia’s trade and investment relations with the UK, the frameworks governing these relations and how Brexit impacts the frameworks. This is followed by Section 4 which discusses Zambia’s post-Brexit trade and investment relations with the UK. Section 5 briefly concludes and lastly, section 6 offers policy recommendations.