His comments came as a debate at the British House of Commons to discuss the United Kingdom leaving the European Union was to be resumed on Wednesday, opened by Brexit minister, Stephen Barclay.
Lusa News Agency spoke with the CTP to find out its perspective on the impact Brexit would have for Portugal.
Calheiros said, he was “very concerned” because “the European Union was designed for union and not for disunion”.
He also said, British tourists are important for Portugal, and especially for the tourism sector in the southern Algarve region and the Portuguese island of Madeira.
Further stating, Portugal had already felt the effects of the Brexit process, saying there had been a 10 percent rise of overnight stays of British tourists in 2016 compared to 2015, a virtually nil variation in 2017 compared to 2016, and a nine percent drop between January and October 2018.
He continued, a group of experts, including Portugal’s secretary of state for tourism and the secretary of state for internationalisation, were due to gather this week to identify the main problems facing Portugal post-Brexit and to anticipate solutions.
According to a study promoted by CIP - Portugal’s business confederation, released in October and presented to parliament in December, tourism and exports in the automotive sector are two areas that could most suffer from Brexit.
The Brexit agreement is to be voted at Britain’s parliament on 15 January.