Alyn Smith is one of Scotland’s six Members of the European Parliament. He is a member of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.

By Alyn Smith MEP

Moldova flag

On your journey to the top, mind and be courteous to the people you meet on the way, because you may be seeing them again sooner than you think. At the time of typing, Theresa May is finding out that Moldova – a small country of 3.55 million – might just bear a grudge.

As a bit of background, let’s recall that in 2017 the UK Government denied visas to Moldova’s economic counsellor to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Corina Cojocaru, and her team. This isn’t a good look for the UK, even without Brexit lurking like the elephant in the room.

The UK is trying to become part of the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement, a $1.7 trillion public procurement alliance, but a flub in the paperwork saw its application knocked back in October by countries including the US, New Zealand and… Moldova. The GPA is a transparent way of opening up procurement markets to foreign competition, but if suppliers trying to bid on UK projects can’t be assured of equal entry access, the competition isn’t fair. So there’s diplomatic and sensible justification for the rejection of the UK’s application, but with the clock ticking, Theresa May and the UK are fast running out of goodwill.