So much for entente cordiale! French warn of ‘nasty’ trade battle
FRANCE has threatened a ‘very nasty battle’ if Britain does not negotiate over fishing rights in a post- Brexit trade deal.
As trade talks with the EU begin today, Amelie de Montchalin, France’s secretary of state for European affairs, said a deal could be scuppered if Britain refuses to give ground on fishing.
It comes as No 10 published its negotiating objectives for a deal with the US, which it said would create £15billion of transatlantic trade and benefit the UK by £3.4billion.
The UK’s chief Europe adviser David Frost was set to travel to Brussels yesterday with more than 100 officials as four days of crunch talks begin.
But the comments by Mrs de Montchalin do not herald a positive start. Boris Johnson has already said that the UK will walk away if trade talks have failed to progress by June.
Speaking on The Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mrs de Montchalin was asked whether negotiations could be halted if the UK refuses to negotiate on fishing.
She replied: ‘Yes. We said that there are four topics which are linked in negotiations. On fish and other topics, we play it with emotion, with drama, with passion, with symbols – and we know how to make it a very, I think, nasty battle [on] both sides.
‘A very nasty battle where politicians in the UK, politicians in France are put in the situation where things get very difficult. And at the end we will both lose.’
Trade talks with the US are expected to begin this month. The negotiations will take place in parallel with EU talks. The objectives state that any agreement with America will protect the NHS and ‘uphold our high standards on food safety and animal welfare’. It follows warnings about chlorinated chicken, hormone-treated beef and genetically modified crops.
Ministers have told the Daily Mail that chlorinated chicken will not be imported.
Mr Johnson said: ‘We have the best negotiators in the business and, of course, we’re going to drive a hard bargain to boost British industry. Trading Scottish smoked salmon for Stetson hats, we will deliver lower prices and more choice for our shoppers.
‘ Most importantly, this transatlantic trade deal will reflect the unique closeness of our two great nations.’ A further Brexit row flared yesterday when a Government adviser was branded ‘out of touch’ after suggesting Britain follows Singapore in not needing a farming industry. In leaked emails seen by the Mail on Sunday, Dr Tim Leunig is understood to have said the food sector was ‘not critically important’ to our economy.
Minette Batters, of the National Farmers Union, said: ‘Farms are the backbone of rural Britain. Surely the last thing we want... is importing cheaper raw ingredients produced to lower standards’.
‘Salmon for Stetsons’
WITH the starting gun firing today on Brexit trade talks, isn’t it an impeccable time for cool heads and calm words?
Not so, it seems. Antagonistic to the last, France has threatened a ‘very nasty battle’ if Britain doesn’t allow continental trawlers to maraud our bounteous fishing waters.
Perhaps the Elysee Palace misunderstands sovereignty! If negotiations collapse, yes, it will be tough for the UK, but calamitous for an EU lurching towards recession.
For all our sakes, both sides must behave pragmatically. A free trade deal between friendly neighbours isn’t rocket science.
Then we can concentrate on all the other challenges, from coronavirus to China’s economic rise, facing the world.
▪ THE police watchdog, the IOPC, is on thin ice. To incredulity, it exonerated five detectives of wrongdoing over their malign roles in the VIP paedophile hoax. Then it whitewashed a report on police bungling a serial killer probe. Now we reveal the regulator took so long dealing with an officer suspended over a custody death, he had time to train as a priest. This is a mockery of justice. The watchdog is in the Home Secretary’s crosshairs. It must reform – rapidly – or be abolished.