Commercial fishing is included in the latest batch of technical notices on how various sectors would be affected if the UK leaves the EU without a deal in March 2019. The note covers access to waters and ports, and the import and export of fishery products. Under such a scenario, subject to any pre-existing agreements for territorial waters, non-UK registered vessels will no longer enjoy automatic access to UK waters and there will be no automatic access for UK registered vessels to fish in EU or third country waters. There will be no automatic access to exchanging fishing opportunities with EU member states, and no automatic access for EU member states to exchange fishing opportunities with the UK. The UK will no longer be a member of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations through EU membership, and will seek to join all relevant RMFOs as quickly as possible as an independent coastal state. This process may take up to 6 months. During this time, UK vessels may not be able to fish in international waters covered by RFMOs. Projects approved by the European Maritime Fisheries Fund before January 2021 will be fully funded.
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