Two days after finalizing an agreement for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union, the EU announced that it would stop recognizing territories under British rule. 

Prime Minister Boris Johnson brought Brexit into force one day after signing a trade agreement with the EU that leaves out territories such as the Falkland Islands. 

As per the agreement, "The territories included in the Treaty on European Union, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community will apply (as well as to the United Kingdom) according to the conditions established in said Treaties. 

"This Agreement does not apply to overseas territories that have a special relationship to the United Kingdom: Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Antarctic Territory, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgen Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands (including Henderson, Oeno and Ducie), Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

"This is part of a separation process on behalf of the United Kingdom, even though it does not recognize Argentine sovereignty over the Falkland Islands. Looking forward this could give rise to conditions that alter European positioning with respect to Argentina's claim over the Islands. 

LPO consulted with sources at the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs who aired on the side of caution but still recognized that, "while it is not an outright victory, it is something we have been proposing." On December 18, Minister of Foreign Affairs Felipe Solá, in his position of provisional president of Mercosur, spoke on the phone with the Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs Augusto Santos Silva. 

Solá asked Santos Silva to, "consider the Falkland Islands as a territory in dispute after Brexit, and not as part of the British Overseas Territories".

This decision has a significant effect on the Islands' economies, especially with regard to the fishing industry since the per capita income on the Falkland Islands is greater than that of residents of Great Britain. Fishing constitutes 75% of islanders' income and there are numerous Korean and Japanese boats as well as many Spanish vessels that fish for squid . 

Translation: Jesse Tomlinson