The Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry on Saturday appealed for local authorities to lift travel restrictions from third countries.

The Chamber called for the revision of rules regarding quarantine upon return from a third country, which most find themselves on Malta’s dark red list.

The Chamber said that the restrictions are placing Maltese businesses at a disadvantage.

President of the Chamber Marisa Xuereb said that “There are significant business interests in third countries that are being put at risk by quarantines that are incongruent with the approach being adopted locally. You are no longer required to quarantine if you have a positive case within your household, but you need to quarantine if you return from most third countries even if you are vaccinated.”

Xuereb called for the urgent review of the rules to allow businesses to continue international activities without further delay.

Chairperson of TradeMalta Liz Barbaro Sant said that the current regulations send a message that Maltese businesses are not open for international activities and that they are reluctant to service customers in these countries. She said that this is not the message they want to convey.

Whilst the Chamber commended the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions allowing businesses to operate locally in a normal setting, Malta should adopt the recommendations from the Council of the EU, which allows non-essential travel from third countries for persons vaccinated with an EU or WHO approved vaccine, or PCR testing before travel, it said.

The Chamber called for an approach which is based on the vaccination status of the traveller rather than the country of origin.