The Brexit Trade Deal & Fisheries

This is the text of the Trade deal – fisheries is 14 pages out of 1246, see page 261

Defra have responded to the press coverage

The implications of the Brexit Deal for fisheries was first published by the BBC

And also the Guardian who described the fishermen’s reaction of betrayal

Bryce Stewart has put one of the first blogs on the deal from an academic perspective

Scottish Government analysis shows drop in key fishing stocks Scottish Fishermen’s federation – Broken Promises & A different view from Brian Wilson on dominance of Scotland’s fishing by fish families – The Scotsman

NFFO Commentary ‘Miniscule, marginal, paltry Pathetic’ – 26^th Dec.

‘Some of the adjectives that will be in circulation within the UK fishing industry today, to describe the change in UK quota shares as the UK leaves the EU and the CFP, and the content of what was agreed in Brussels on Christmas eve sinks in. Some of the bell-weather stocks tell the story most vividly, After a further five years adjustment period, the UK’s share of Channel cod will have increased from 9.3% to 10.2%.’

But then there is the £100m sweetner …. Promised by Gove

To conclude, some thoughts:

• It was Jerry Percy who at the beginning of all of this, years ago, said …’We were screwed when we went into the EU and we’ll be screwed when we come out’ … he was right.
• Fisheries was a highly convenient pawn in Brexit politics, encompassing sovereignty and slogans like ‘taking back control’; and up to the end it would have been such a good excuse if the Brexit zealots had won their ‘no deal’ arguments.
• In the final reckoning it was the economic weight of UK’s trade with Europe that won the day against the trivial economic value of fishing which was highlighted day after day.
• The light shone on the byzantine arrangements surrounding fisheries ‘management’, quotas and allocations and UK Government’s mismanagement of this over the last 40 years has been fully revealed.
• And then of course there will be new annual negotiations and all that new regulatory paper work which will probably be the death knell of many UK small fishing interests.