Mauritius and UK have signed a Strategic Trade Partnership (STP) to boost trade and investment between the two countries across a range of priority sectors including financial and professional services, waste management and green economy, education, cyber, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology and agritech. The current relationship is worth over 40 billion MUR annually and the STP takes this further.
Yesterday, Mr Andrew Selous MP, the UK Prime Minister’s newly appointed Trade Envoy to Mauritius this joined the hon. minister Bholah, Acting Finance Minister to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Strategic Trade Partnership, a significant milestone that will see the UK-Mauritius trade relationship take to new heights. Andrew Selous MP was made the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to South Africa in August 2017 The Trade Envoy’s role is to work to promote UK exports to South Africa and now Mauritius as well as to increase trade and investment between our countries to increase prosperity and reduce poverty.
During a two-day visit, Mr Selous MP paid a courtesy call to Hon. Prime Minister Jugnauth and formally invited Mauritius to join the UK-Africa Investment Summit scheduled to take place in April 2024. He also met Hon. Alan Ganoo, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Cooperation and International Trade and Hon. Soomilduth Bholah, Acting Finance Minister and Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives. They discussed the UK and Mauritius’ shared ambitions to deepen trade, fuel economic growth and promote bilateral cooperation. In addition, Mr Selous MP heard a range of views from British and Mauritian industry leaders and reiterated the UK’s commitment to support Mauritius’ international and Africa-wide trade and export ambitions.
‘I have been privileged to be appointed as the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Mauritius in December 2022 and have been looking forward to visiting ever since. My mission here is a very simple one: to support and boost trade and investment between our two great countries. I serve businesses in both countries to do business in the other, and I’m hugely excited by the enormous potential for us to continue to do more together, including in the wider African region. I want us to build prosperity, to eliminate poverty, and to create the opportunities and the life chances for the peoples of both our countries for many years to come,’ Andrew Selous MP, Trade Envoy to Mauritius said.: ‘Trade is at the heart of everything we do. It supports the long-term health of our economies; it drives innovation, creates job opportunities, and strengthens the ties between fast-growing economies like the UK and Mauritius. In 2022, the total trade in goods and services between our two countries was worth over 40 billion rupees. We are proud that the UK is Mauritius’ second biggest export market while Mauritius is the UK’s sixth biggest trade partner in Africa. As the globe continues to face economic uncertainty, trade will remain vitally important to all our futures said Uk Trade Envoy.
The British High Commissioner, Her Excellency Charlotte Pierre stated: The Trade Envoy’s appointment follows a meeting between the then UK Prime Minister, Liz Truss and the Prime Minister of Mauritius, Pravind Jugnauth, at the UN General Assembly in New York in 2022. Both welcomed steps to strengthen the UK- Mauritius relationship, including through a Strategic Trade Partnership (STP). This landmark agreement bears testimony to the UK’s commitment to supporting Mauritius’ trade agenda and to deepening its trade partnership with Mauritius as we continue to face the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
About the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme
The UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys are a network of appointed parliamentarians, drawn from the House of Commons/House of Lords and across the political spectrum. The role is unpaid and voluntary. Trade Envoys engage with their respective markets where substantial trade and investment opportunities have been identified by the UK government. They support the drive for economic growth by building on the UK’s existing relations with these markets. In addition, they promote Britain in the world.
The Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy programme began in 2012 and continues to go from strength to strength. There are currently 35 Prime Minister Trade Envoys covering 65 markets.
