Falklands: ‘No benefits from Brexit, only challenges’
29th April 2022
Talking to reporters after a meeting of the Falkland Islands All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) last week, Falkland Islands government representative to the UK and Europe Richard Hyslop said: “When it comes to Brexit, as things stand, there are no obvious benefits to the Falkland Islands. There are, however, a number of challenges.”
Mr Hyslop said that the EU is the main market for the Falkland Islands’ fishery exports, with exports accounting for ‘more than 50% of our GDP’, and ‘was an important market for meat exports’.
Brexit had seen the imposition of tariffs into EU markets, primarily France and Spain, of between 6% and 18%, hugely reducing profitability of what were the single most important markets for Falklands exports.
Mr Hyslop said the Falkland Islands government was ‘exploring a wide range of options’, looking at ‘how we have these tariffs removed’.
He said: “This is not an easy task, but we remain confident that at some point we will be successful. We have already made some limited progress in having the tariff temporarily removed in a small percentage of our exports.”
Derek Twigg MP, chairman of the APPG and a former defence minister who visited the Falklands in 2007, told PA Media after the meeting: “Brexit has brought problems for the islands in terms of the fisheries, because their fishery… is a very large part of their economy, particularly squid, particularly the type of squid they have which is exported to Europe.
“Work is going on with the Falklands government and countries like Spain and the EU to try and ease those challenges around that, because it’s such a big exporter.”
This story was taken from the latest issue of Fishing News. For more up-to-date and in-depth reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.30 here.
