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© Reuters. Spain sees possible progress with the United Kingdom for the mobility of workers
London, Nov 16 (.).- The Secretary of State for Trade, Xiana Méndez, sees it as possible to reach “pragmatic solutions” with the United Kingdom to facilitate the mobility of workers from Spain to British territory, according to what she said this Wednesday in an interview with EFE.
Méndez participated in the presentation in London of the IV Investment Barometer sponsored by the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom, which indicates that Spanish Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this country has slowed down in the first half of 2022, due to frictions in the supply chain, Brexit and the war in Ukraine.
The Secretary of State told Efe that one of the ways to improve investment flows would be to facilitate the mobility of people, although she acknowledges that it is a “complicated” matter due to the restrictions imposed by London after its departure from the European Union (EU).
“I believe that acting on this job mobility, allowing foreign investors to find qualified professionals in the British market, who often exist but other times have to come from outside, is key to continuing to allow investment flows to be as good as they have been so far,” he said.
In this sense, Méndez assured that his British counterpart, Greg Hands, with whom he met before the event, has offered him “total collaboration.”
“What he has offered me is to further systematize some conversations that we have that are monthly, in some cases weekly, to eliminate friction, and in the specific case of worker mobility, he has also offered to look at the specific problems and seek pragmatic solutions to a regulatory framework that, if any, would be complicated and take time to change,” he stated.
He was “optimistic” that there can be a consensus “on specific aspects”, outside the broader negotiations that, due to competition, must be carried out within the framework of the EU.
“Communication is excellent. In our case, last year we came up with other issues related to public procurement that were resolved, and I think this is not going to be an exception,” he said.
In the end, “common sense prevails”, assessed Méndez, who added: “It escapes no one, especially the Secretary of State, that Spain is a strategic partner, and that, therefore, trade and investment relations, with full compliance with the regulations that we have today, they have to develop in the best way”.
“I think that we will be able to provide a pragmatic solution to the workers’ movement and also to the exchange of young people in the form of non-labor internships and scholarships, which is also a hot issue,” he said.
According to Méndez, although Spanish companies in the United Kingdom “have adapted well” to operating after Brexit, there is a new concern, which is the plan of the Conservatives to “modify the entire body of community legislation that has been in force in the last decades”.
“This generates uncertainty about what the final result may be, and if it will be very different from the regulation to which community operators are accustomed, because they will have to learn,” he admitted.
Méndez told EFE that it would also be convenient, when promoting Spanish investment, to resolve the dispute over the Northern Ireland Protocol to the EU’s withdrawal agreement, since it affects “other collateral issues” of commercial activity. .
In her speech to the businessmen, the Secretary of State acknowledged that another pending matter between the two countries is a post-Brexit agreement with Gibraltar.
“A lot of progress has been made and we are close to a final solution that satisfies all parties. It would be desirable for it to arrive as soon as possible,” he said.
(video)
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