Trade agreements
Jersey does its BIT Jersey is striving to seal a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with the United Arab Emirates, which could boost investment on the island and stimulate greater access to Jersey’s expertise among businesses and investors in the region AMID THE FALLOUT from Brexit, the Words: David Craik
20 middle east edition 2021
UK government is busy attempting to deliver on its promises to UK Leave voters by trawling the global stage for new free trade agreements – Japan and Australia are the latest to hit the headlines. But it’s not just the UK that’s working hard to achieve international trade agreements. One outcome of the split from the EU is that places such as the Channel Islands are free to pursue their own agreements, rather than to just have UK agreements extended to them.
As a result, Jersey is also ‘thinking global’ – and is on the road to signing its first Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) with the United Arab Emirates. So what exactly is a BIT? Carey Olsen defines it as “an international agreement where the governments of two territories mutually agree to guarantee minimum standards of protection to treat individuals and legal persons … from one country who invest in the other’s territory fairly”. Prior to 2018, Jersey had been required to request that existing UK BITs be
www.blglobal.co.uk
