French fishermen anxious over no-deal Brexit
(10 Dec 2020) As Brexit talks enter their decisive final days, there's still a big catch: the fishing industry. It is holding up the trade deal between the European Union and recently departed Britain, putting at risk hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions of euros in annual production losses. French fishermen are anxious about a looming no-deal Brexit, following months of talks by negotiators seeking to cobble together a trade deal in the wake of their Brexit divorce. While French and other European fishermen currently take much of their catch in UK waters, a no-deal Brexit could end or significantly limit that. Twenty-eight year old fisherman Mathieu Pinto is concerned about the prospects of a no-deal Brexit. Docking his boat, L'Ophelea, in the French port of Boulogne-Sur-Mer after a night of fishing sea-snails or whelk, Pinto said that the vast majority of his catch comes from British waters and there will be a "huge impact" on his business. Pinto believes the consequences of the end of the current fishing policies would mean war amongst European boats fishing across the same coastal waters in France. There is essentially not enough to go around, he said. Pinto talks with other fishermen here in Boulogne and he says they are all just as scared as he is. He says he is not yet ready to sell his boat but as someone who learned the trade handed down through his family, he is quickly losing his passion. As well as France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Denmark are among those directly implicated by the potential closing off of UK waters. Brussels has proposed a 12-month period for continued reciprocal access to fishing waters but Britain has suggested this could be rejected. For centuries, foreign fishermen shared the plentiful waters off Britain, and it has been no different since the UK joined the EU in 1973. But as catches dwindled, sometimes to a fraction of their previous numbers because of ruthless overexploitation, the number of British fishermen has dwindled from 22,000 in 1975 to 12,000 in 2018. Rightly or wrongly, EU trawlers venturing freely in UK waters came to be seen as a symbol of plunder and exploitation. When Britain voted to leave, saving UK waters for UK fishermen became a rallying cry. In an ideal scenario, British fishermen would have all the waters to themselves, able to expand what so long has been a diminishing industry but it's not that simple. The EU came into the trade negotiations demanding that its boats continue being allowed to fish. Even though Brexit left the bloc in a much weaker position, UK exports gave it leverage. Some 80% of fish landed in the UK is exported, and three-quarters of that goes to the EU. If the continent closes off its markets, fish would be left rotting on British quays. The debate during the final days centers on how the issues of fishing rights for EU trawlers could be reconciled with low or no tariffs for UK exports through fish-processing hubs like Boulogne-sur-Mer. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: / ap_archive Facebook: / aparchives Instagram: / apnews You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
