US Congressmen believe Gibraltar would be part of any trade deal between the US and the UK
George Holding is a great friend of Gibraltar and has been a U.S congressman since 2013, then representing the 13th District of North Carolina which has a population of over 750,000 people until 2017 and now representing North Carolina’s 2nd congressional district which is home to over 820,000 people.
When asked what he and his colleagues are doing in Gibraltar, he said, “This is my 4th official visit. My role as a member of Congress is to bring colleagues over here to learn more about Gibraltar and discuss ways that we can be helpful and improving the relations between Gibraltar and the United States, fostering commercial contacts, listening to military concerns, listening to our military concerns and addressing everything here."
Grace 1 has been a big issue in Gibraltar since it was seized on the 4th of July. When asked what he thought of the situation he said, “The Gibraltarian Authorities and British Military are enforcing the law, and sometimes enforcing the law is difficult, but they’ve done it and we’re here to support them any way we can as they carry out their duties under international law.”
Congressman Holding also spoke of including Gibraltar in a trade deal between the United Kingdom and the United States after Brexit, saying, “From a country and country relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, we stand ready to execute a trade agreement, negotiate and execute one, and we certainly believe Gibraltar will become part of it.”
This is Kenny Machant’s first time visiting Gibraltar. He has represented Texas’ 24th Congressional District for over 14 years.
Mr Machant told PANORAMA, “Gibraltar has great weather, though we quite didn’t bring the right clothes. In regards to Brexit, the only thing Congress would have to do with Gibraltar was if there was a hard Brexit or if there was a Brexit with a deal, we would negotiate a trade deal with Britain, and that would have to be ratified by Congress and we’re being asked to make sure that Gibraltar is a key part of that agreement.”
Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Garcia also gave PANORAMA some insight as to why these important figures in American politics are visiting Gibraltar.
“When we came into government, we took the view that we wanted to build relations between the US and Gibraltar, we think it’s important as it’s a World Super Power and it’s important that our conditions and situation is properly understood. So one of the ways we do that is we go to Washington once or twice a year and put our case across to congressmen and members of the administration there, and also we bring people from there over to Gibraltar, and I think that has more value because then they can understand the situation for themselves in a far better way when they see everything on site. The value of bringing people here cannot be underestimated, it’s immense.”
He added: “The congressmen are going to go familiarise themselves of Gibraltar now after this reception, they will be laying a wreath tomorrow (Thursday) at the American War Memorial which was built by the US in 1932 as a gesture of thank you to Gibraltar for our role in World War 1. Then they have an official dinner tomorrow evening and have lots of meetings in between – It’s a very busy schedule.”
01-08-19 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR
