Lack of a deal would have been worse

I agree with Geoffrey Brooking’ suggestion (Letters 13/1/21) that our Tory Brexit trade deal “sells our fishing rights down the river”. However, the absence of a trade deal would have been worse for the fishing industry as, in addition to the additional checks and paperwork that have been introduced due to our opting to leave the single market and customs union, the industry would have also had to cope with tariffs on exports to the EU.

UK consumers tend to prefer fish from outside our waters, while much of our catch is marketable in the EU. Thus about 70% of the catch caught by British fishermen has gone to the EU while a third of the fish we eat is imported.

The delays caused by the need for health certificates and associated paperwork has resulted in headlines such as “Brexit red tape leaves fish rotting on Cornish boats” (Telegraph 8 Jan.) and “It’s a catastrophe” (Reuters 8 Jan.). The latter refers to the fact that many Scottish fishermen have halted exports to EU markets after the post Brexit bureaucracy destroyed the system that enabled them to put fresh langoustines and scallops in French shops just over a day after they are harvested.

British fishermen are reported to be fishing in UK waters and then landing their catch in Denmark. Processors in Denmark can trade in the single market, avoiding the bureaucracy we have introduced at our border. James Withers, Chief Executive of Scotland Food & Drink suggests that cutting out our UK processors is a huge concern. We may end up importing our processed fish from the EU.

While the deal with the EU is done, we have lost the bilateral deals that the EU has with Norway, Greenland and the Faroes.

Our state of the art freezer trawler Kirkella is tied up in Hull, unable to fish in distant waters for the cod and haddock that we expect for our traditional fish and chips.

Our fishing industry would have been in a much stronger position if we had remained in the EU and negotiated improved terms for our fishermen.

However, Nigel Farage was our representative on the influential European Parliament Fisheries Committee. Over three years he turned up to only one of 42 meetings, and on three major votes on the common fisheries policy, he failed to vote in favour of improving the legislation.

Unfortunately our fishermen seem to have accepted the promises of the Brexiteers, who apparently believed their own propaganda, without any reality checks.

John Catt, A member of the European Movement - www.emleics. co.uk