The United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization, also identified as C24, currently chaired by Menissa Rambally (Saint Lucia), will undertake a visiting mission to the British Virgin Islands from 26 to 27 August.
The Miami Herald has reported that Andrew Fahie, the premier of the British Virgin Islands, is currently being held in the US after being apprehended in Miami on 28 April over an alleged drug plot. Fahie was appointed to his role of premier by the Queen in 2019 and has been in charge of running the Caribbean island ever since.
Falkland Islands lawmaker MLA Teslyn Barkman pointed out in Cayman Islands how Brexit and a no deal departure by the UK could totally destroy the economy of her country because the bulk of the Islands exports go to the European Union.
A new list of corporate tax havens has named Jersey as the seventh most aggressive in the world. The Tax Justice Network created the ranking by assigning a haven score based on 20 different criteria. Both Jersey and Guernsey scored 98 out of a possible 100, putting them up there with the worst.
The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) have launched a five-day capacity building seminar to help UK Overseas Territories, including the Falkland Islands, support safe maritime trade. The seminar, delivered as part of the government’s Overseas Territories Seabed Mapping Program, will focus on international regulations, with sessions on maritime safety information training, best practice governance and maritime law.
Under the heading of 'The tiny British island of Anguilla worries about Brexit', The Economist addressed the issue of the impact of Brexit on its Overseas Territories, mainly in the Caribbean and particularly in Anguilla, an island whose connectivity is entirely dependent on neighboring territories from France and the Netherlands. There is also a mention to other BOTs, such as the Falkland Islands, and its main exports market, Spain, 'which has a taste for Argentine squid'. And 'it is not clear whether the Falklands will retain tariff-free access to this market once Britain leaves the EU'.
The British Overseas Territory of Dominica has suffered “widespread damage” from Hurricane Maria, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced. “We have lost all that money can buy,” he said in a Facebook post. The hurricane suddenly strengthened to a “potentially catastrophic” category five storm, before making landfall on the Caribbean island.
The Premier of the British Virgin Islands Dr D Orlando Smith has called for the relationship between the United Kingdom (UK) and its Overseas Territories (OTs) to be re-framed to become more mutually beneficial.
New global rules forcing companies to report taxable activities country-by-country publicly have been called for by a group of 300 prominent economists. In a letter to world leaders, the group urges the UK to “take a lead” in the push for more tax transparency and argues that poor countries are the biggest losers from tax havens.
British Overseas Territories said they hoped that the Labour Party and other parties in the UK Parliament will remain consistent in their support for the self-governance and self-determination of the people of the BOTs and their continued growth and development.