Dickson C. Igwe. Photo: VINO/File

The Albert Bryan Government in the US Virgin Islands has threatened to impose tariffs by taking the jurisdiction to a combustible Donald Trump to seek retribution against the British Virgin Islands. He also threatens further penalties not stated.

This threat is the result of a dispute. The British Virgin Islands is imposing new fees for charter boats on entry into British Virgin Islands waters. This is not an unreasonable action and speaks to a fees policy that has long required updating.

Bryan’s aggressive response reveals the easily severed social, economic, and political links between the two neighbours. Both geographies share familial, social and cultural ties.

Both territories share geography and similar demographics and people, but that is where the similarity ends.

The United States Virgin Islands is a territory of the USA, and the people resident in that territory, apart from green card holders and those with Visas that allow them to work, are full US citizens, but without the right to vote in the USA.

This is similar to Puerto Rico and Guam, both territories of the USA. US citizens of United States territories, such as the United States Virgin Islands, can vote in mainstream US elections and participate in the American democratic process on the mainland, but only if they move to the US mainland to live.

US territories’ administrative and political processes create policy at the local level, but they have to lobby and seek representation at the White House, and in the US Congress and Senate to influence policy at the federal level.

On the other hand, Virgin Islanders are not full British Citizens but Citizens of British Overseas Territories. One caveat is that a significant number of British Virgin Islanders are USA citizens through birth, naturalisation, and generational links to the US Virgin Islands.

However, Virgin Islanders have benefits on the UK mainland, and can apply to become full British Citizens and apply for a UK passport, which is a powerful international document in its own right. The status of British Virgin Islanders in relation to the UK is not as clear-cut as the status of US Virgin Islanders within the US social and political structure.