MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU tariffs on Falklands exports, “we are in ongoing discussions”, says FCDO

Foreign Secretary David Lammy was questioned at the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Falklands foreign trade

A specific question in UK Parliament on the Falkland Islands Government urgent call to the UK Government for the use of the current UK/EU reset agreement as an opportunity to remove the detrimental post-Brexit tariffs on Falklands exports, received from Foreign Secretary David Lammy a brief reply of “ongoing discussions”.

 It was Liberal Democrat MP from West Dorset and member of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Edward Morello MP, who this week asked Secretary Lammy on the post-Brexit “detrimental tariffs’ castigating Falklands’ exports.

“What discussions has the Secretary of State had with his Department and European counterparts to address this trade arrangement and a new for the Falklands?

“We’re always seeking to reduce tariff burdens for Overseas Territories and we are in ongoing discussions with the European Union”, affirmed Foreign Secretary Lammy.

Even when the president Trump administration with its “Make America Great Again” campaign hit the Falklands with one of the highest tariffs in the world, some 42%, on exports to the US, because of the disparity in trade terms, the Islands challenge is mainly with the European Union, (and its Spanish associates), which remain the main market for its fishery produce and products.

As a consequence of Brexit the Falklands lost its free quotas and tariffs access to the EU, which the post Brexit scenario has since imposed, and this is far more damaging than the parametric impulse, affecting mainly toothfish exports, in bilateral trade with Trumpism US.
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