Brexit: French fishing near Jersey provides ‘leverage’

Brexit: French fishing near Jersey provides ‘leverage’

Earlier this month the government released its Brexit Ready document indicating its worst case scenario concerns in case there was a no-deal Brexit from the EU.

Among the issues highlighted was the possibility of France applying prohibitive tariffs that would prevent Jersey fishermen from access to their largest export market.

In response, Don Thompson, president of the Jersey Fishermen’s Association, said that he was ‘confident’ that the Island’s bargaining position was strong enough to prevent this from happening.

‘Plenty of work has been done on this and we have taken it as far as we can go at this time,’ he said.

‘What’s important is that we always have the leverage of having something like 250 French boats that require access to Jersey waters for fishing. It would be rather foolish of the French to put in place tariffs that would prevent trade with French ports when that could jeopardise their rights to fish in our waters.

‘I’m confident that things will go smoothly. At the end of the day their rights to fish in our waters are worth more to them than our trade with France is.’

Mr Thompson recently said that coming out of the EU would give the local industry more control over its stocks, citing recent frustrations such as being unable to fish for blue fin tuna, which are becoming increasingly abundant in Jersey waters, while their French counterparts can.

‘Just generally that is part of the many things [being able to fish for blue fin tuna] that interest us in coming out of Europe,’ he said.

‘It’s not just the Jersey fishermen, it’s across the UK that fishermen will be looking forward to taking back more control over their fishing rights.

‘The Common Fisheries policy has been the trademark of the UK’s links with the EU and it has been a disaster since day one.

‘We are already starting to look at things like access for fishing blue fin tuna, which is currently being fished by French trawlers but not by local fishermen.’

Mr Thompson said that he believed that French ports would be ready to apply any new border checks post-Brexit but could not say so with ‘absolute certainty’.

‘There has been a big piece of work done by both the UK and French authorities on this and having the Brexit extension has given them more time to sort it out,’ he said.

‘I know that in France they have put a lot of work in preparing their ferry ports, such as in St Malo. So I am confident it will be ok, but it’s difficult to say with absolute certainty.’

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