Natasha Niebieskikwiat
12/26/2020 4:02 PM
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 12/26/2020 4:11 PM
The free trade agreement reached by the United Kingdom and the European Union in the hours prior to last Christmas Eve represents a severe blow to the Malvinas islanders, and good news for Argentina because it leaves it in a position to
rethink its strategy in claim of sovereignty
that it maintains since 1833.
It happens that this last part of the Brexit agreement, which will govern from next Friday, January 1,
the so-called Overseas Territories that Great Britain continues to possess were excluded
: among them the South Atlantic Islands, which Argentina disputes.
By excluding the Falklands from the trade agreement between London and Brussels, the islands' products will
no longer enjoy the privileges they had when the United Kingdom was part of the European common market.
Now they will pay tariffs and, in any case, they will depend on the new agreements that the British reach for them before Brussels, who remain in charge of their Foreign Relations and Defense.
"The non-incorporation of the Malvinas Islands to the Brexit agreement was one of the issues that Foreign Minister Felipe Solá put in the talks with Josep Borrell (High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy), and with all European foreign ministers with whom he has spoken this year and with whom he has been raising the Argentine position regarding the validity of UN resolution 2065 and the existence of a controversy regarding the exercise of sovereignty, which according to our rights and our constitution corresponds to Argentina ", the Secretary of the Malvinas and South Atlantic Islands Area of the Foreign Ministry, Daniel Filmus, told Clarín this Saturday.
"The EU decision not to include the Falklands, South Georgia and South Sandwich respects this view," he
added.
Since, by a slight majority, the British decided in a referendum to separate from the European Union (2016), the kelpers began to prepare for a possible loss of access of their products (mainly fish and second measure sheep meat) to the European market with zero tariff.
This claim to Prime Minister Boris Johnson was now accentuated as they saw an unfavorable negotiation coming.
In fact, they were not the most important part for the British in their interests before Brussels.
By the way, in the most hectic hours of the end of this latest trade deal that closed on Wednesday 24, Premier Johnson anticipated it.
It was in the end of the year message that he sent to the islands.
"The EU was absolutely intransigent
in excluding most of our overseas territories from trade negotiations this year. But it has not been forgotten or left behind. We will work with Governor Phillips and his EVILs to support them during the change. And in the longer term, our independent trade policy will open the door to all kinds of new markets for Falklands exports, so that in the months and years to come the world will be if not your oyster, certainly your squid. " He pointed out about the star resource that supports the Malvinas public treasury.
Revenues from the granting of fishing licenses to foreign vessels constitute
between 50% and 60% of the tax revenues of the islands.
And as of January 1, the islands are on the verge of going
from zero tariff to paying between 6 and 18 percent for the products they bring into Europe,
although London will also seek to negotiate it.
The verbatim letter of the agreement reached on Wednesday 24 reads the following:
In part seven, of Final Provisions, the article on "territorial scope" states:
"1- This Agreement applies to: The territories to which the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union apply and the Constitutive Treaty of the European Atomic Energy Community, and under the conditions established in said Treaties, and b: Territory of the United Kingdom ".
After referring in point 3 to Gibraltar and other cases, it says in point 4: "This Agreement does not apply to overseas territories that have special relations with the United Kingdom: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Antarctic Territory, British Territory of the Indian Ocean, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands "
