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When a narrow majority of UK residents voted to leave the EU, back in 2016, they could not see that their decision would directly lead to perhaps the first ever full sitting of Jersey’s States Assembly on a Sunday, on just the second day after Christmas, more than four years later.
And debate on the fine details of the UK’s decision isn’t over yet – today States Members supported the principle of Jersey being included in the UK/EU Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement – but there’s now a ninety day “cooling off” period, since the actual legal text has become available so very, very, very late in the process.
Jersey is dealing with the effects of a decision in which it played no part – and it is only now, when the actual detail of the tortuous Brexit negotiations is emerging, that the implications of that are known.
We were told that it was the “appropriate constitutional arrangement” for islanders to have had no say in the 2016 Brexit vote, because the island is not part of the UK.
But as has become abundantly clear, Brexit directly affects every single one of us in Jersey in a multitude of ways – so how can it be “appropriate” for us to have had no say?
Pictured: The trade deal will avoid the need for tariffs on goods.
The detail, which is only now coming out, is instructive. Take two days towards the end of November this year, during the final stages of negotiations. On the 17th, it seems that the UK requested that Jersey be included in the ‘VAT protocol.’
And a few days later on the 20th, the EU and UK produced a joint declaration, which referred to the Crown Dependencies, and that committed to “certain actions on countering harmful tax regimes.” It has not yet been published what those “certain actions” were, or how they would they have affected the health of our main industry.
Ultimately, Jersey was able to avoid (for now) both of those outcomes – the ‘harmful tax’ issue remains, although watered down into a “non-legally binding” political declaration, which is separate to the main agreement, and which apparently (we've not seen it yet) includes wording which the island is happy with.
But the episode clearly shows just how critical Brexit is to the future of the island; the temptation for the EU to use it to further their own agenda on tax matters is now abundantly clear. Even today, States Members were warned that if they didn’t agree to support the agreement, then the island risked being blacklisted.
The Brexit issue still has a long way to run, not least as the differences in the arrangements between fishermen in Jersey and Guernsey become clear
Pictured: Senator Gorst presented the Brexit trade deal to States Members today.
Jersey has had to make the best of the UK’s decision. We didn’t want it, we didn’t ask for it, we didn’t take part in it – but still, we must make the best of it.
On the material which has been published so far, the External Relations Minister, and his officials, have served the island very well indeed – and remember, they have done that on the most complex of issues, through what has been the toughest year most of us can recall, when they didn't even have an actual seat at the table.
We owe them our sincere thanks and gratitude.
The island must hope that their attention can now be focused on the opportunities which accompany any major change.
The favourable arrangements we have enjoyed under Protocol 3 weren’t the fruit of any long-term, carefully engineered vision; they were more the result of spotting, and maximising, the opportunities presented to us - and that is not to denigrate them in the slightest.
Jersey must do the same again.
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