LONDON: England told France on Monday that it had to retreat within 48 hours in a row of fisheries that threatened a spiral into a wider trade dispute or a tortuous legal action under the Brexit trade agreement.
France said England had refused to give the fishermen the correct number of licenses to operate in British waters and said it could impose targeted steps from Tuesday, including tightening some truck checks that move between neighbors.
England said it issued a license to ships that could prove that they had previously been fishing in British waters.
This line is increasingly intensive when France seizes a British dredger, Cornelis Gert Jan, in French waters near Le Havre, said it did not have a license needed, even though the ship’s owner said it had all the appropriate documents.
“France has made a truly unreasonable threat, including to the Channel Islands and for our fisheries industry, and they need to draw that threat or we will use our trade agreement mechanism with the EU to take action,” Secretary of the Foreign Lizar Truss told Sky News.
“France has behaved unfairly.
It is not in the requirements of a trade agreement.
And if someone behaves unfairly in the trade agreement, you have the right to take action against them and look for a few steps of compensation.
And that’s what we will do if France doesn’t retreat,” said Truss.
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Asked for the French time frame must retreat, Truss said: “This problem needs to be completed in the next 48 hours.” The line is also at risk of being a disruption to the COP26 climate summit which starts in Scotland on Sunday.
Paris said it could ban British fishing vessels from demolition at the French port, implement additional licenses on British ships, tighten truck controls and strengthen habit control and cleanliness if they fail.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday he had been “confused” to read a letter from Paris to the European Union.
Posted by Prime Minister Prime France Jean Castex, it was called on the block to show “more damage to leave the EU than remaining there”.
The problem of fishing was steady the talk of Brexit for many years, not because of its economic interest but due to its political significance.
If it was not resolved, it could trigger the initial dispute measures in the Brexit trade agreement at the beginning of this week.
When asked why the problem of fishing, a long source of dispute between France and England, had looked back in the bond, truss suggested it might have something to do with the presidential election next year in France.