The Trade and Cooperation Agreement Reset promised by the Labour government when it was elected last year aims to recalibrate and reassess post-Brexit relationships between the UK and the EU.
Guernsey external relations minister Jonathan Le Tocq was joined by Jersey’s chief minister Lyndon Farnham at Downing Street.
He said that the UK-EU ‘reset’ appeared so far to be ‘positive' for the island.
‘The new Labour government promised this reset, which looked promising initially when they were elected last year,’ he said.
‘We were a bit disappointed as there wasn’t a lot of momentum, and this has all happened really in the last few months.’
The Channel Islands politicians met with cabinet office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds and some European leaders.
‘From Guernsey’s point of view, the obvious one is that there are so many checks and balances,’ said Deputy Le Tocq.
‘When fisherman load their catch and 80% of Guernsey’s catch goes to a French market, if anything that could be done to reduce that burden it would make sense.
‘The French catch fish in our waters but are not subject to those things.’
The 2020 Brexit deal, which saw the UK regain 25% of the EU’s fishing quotas, was due to run out next year.
The new deal will keep the current status quo, giving EU boats continued access to UK waters until 2038.
‘We were keen to see opportunities for youth mobility, particularly things like apprenticeships or young people, perhaps from France and vice versa, who might come over here and work for a year, that would be a good thing as well,’ said Deputy Le Tocq.
‘Obviously the security part of it is something that I think we will benefit from, being part of those broader issues, and there the door is open for the future.’
He added that the purpose was not to discuss ID cards, although that is an ongoing discussion.
‘What I was really pleased about is that there was far greater willingness on both sides to say we need to do more together,’ he said.
‘What we’re going to end up with is a sort of agreement I think a bit like Switzerland has with the EU, and that’s not a bad thing.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.