Island advised to make most of EU third country status
GUERNSEY needs to take advantage of its experience as a 'third country' jurisdiction operating outside of the European Union as the UK wrestles with how it will exit the EU in two years' time.
Former UK Foreign Office official Louise Harvey spoke at an event in London, organised by Guernsey Finance and attended by some 200 finance sector professionals in the capital, on how the UK, and London in particular, might be positioned post-Brexit.
She said it was unlikely that the rest of the EU would be prepared to accept the UK carving out a financial sector-based agreement as part of a post-Brexit trade deal. It would appear to be cherry picking, she said.
Brussels-based Ms Harvey, now a businesswoman working for FTI Consulting, said the third country regime which allowed outside jurisdictions such as Guernsey to place financial products into the EU was never intended to deal with an external player the size of London.
'For a situation like Brexit, where potentially the majority of all services would come from a country that is not a member state, that is not an attractive option for the EU 27,' she said.
