Keeping the poor, poor. It’s what the EU does so well.

You probably have never heard of Ahmed Shiaan.  He is the Maldives’ Ambassador to the UK.   Nice place he comes from you must be thinking.  And it is.  

But paradise comes with its own problems.  The EU causes him and his country problems.  The EU deliberately keeps the people in his country poor.    

EU protectionism has hampered their largest export, tuna, through a 24% tariff – unless, and here is the rub, it is to be processed in the EU.    

He explains how this has harmed economic development in the Maldives and expresses his hope for a Free Trade Agreement with the UK.  Oh yes, the EU generously offers the Maldives a 0% tariff on fresh tuna, provided it  destined for processing in the EU.  The “added value” is made up in the processing.  So by not allowing the import into the EU of tuna unless it is to be processed in the EU means the people of Maldives remain poor.  So the people of Maldives can’t ever get the opportunity to actually make money on the most profitable part of the tuna industry, the processing.   

I wrote about this before in relation to coffee.    

The EU is a protectionist club that destroys opportunity in some of the poorest nations in the world so that its people can make a fortune.    It is morally outrageous.  Yet that is exactly what he EU is doing in your name. 

The EU artificially creates the conditions to capture more of the value chain.  At the same time, it stymies the development of canning facilities in the Maldives by encouraging raw export.  The long-term consequences of this is a lack of development. 

The sooner we are out of this rotten club the better.