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Updated November 1st, 2021 at 11:20 IST

UK, France threaten each other with trade dispute action over fishing row stalemate

UK PM said that it was "up to France" to step back from intimidation, while France insisted that the ball was "in Britain's court" as fishing row intensified.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
UK
IMAGE: AP | Image:self
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France President Emmanuel Macron and UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on October 31, Sunday exchanged bitter rhetorics as they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome for over 25 minutes of duration. UK Prime Minister Johnson complained about EU chief Ursula von der Leyen’s threats over reprisal for the two countries’ post-Brexit dispute over fishing in the English Channel, saying that they were “completely unjustified”. Johnson’s government, meanwhile, stated that it was "up to France" to step back from the intimidation. However, France insisted that the ball was "in Britain's court" to decide the fate and outcome of the long-standing dispute between two nations which Johnson said was not “bilateral”, according to several reports.   

France claimed solution in 'next hours and days', UK denied having 'any such discussions'

While France’s government said that it had agreed on a solution in the "next hours and days” with the UK, Johnson’s spokesperson later denied the claims saying that no such discussions happened on the sidelines of G20. Instead, he said that during the meeting with Ursula von der Leyen at the G20 summit in Rome, the UK Prime Minister raised Britain’s “concerns about the rhetoric from the French government,” Guardian newspaper reported, citing a close source. Meanwhile, UK’s Brexit minister, David Frost, expressed concerns and “astonishment” over the letter dispatched from the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, to Von der Leyen demanding the EU-level response over license shortfall for French vessels to do fishing in the coastal waters of the UK and Jersey. 

This, UK’s Brexit minister Frost said, was “indispensable to show European public opinion that it causes more damage to leave the EU than to stay in”. “I hope this opinion is not held more widely across the EU,” Frost tweeted. “To see it expressed in this way is clearly very troubling and very problematic in the current context when we are trying to solve many highly sensitive issues, including on the Northern Ireland protocol.”

Frost exchanged barbs with France, saying:  “This is all the more so as the threats made by France this week to our fishing industry, to energy supplies, and to future cooperation, eg, through the Horizon research program, unfortunately, form part of a pattern that has persisted for much of this year.”

He went on to add: “As I set out yesterday to [European Commission vice-president] Maroš Šefčovič, these threats, if implemented on 2 November, would put the EU in breach of its obligations under our trade agreement.”

As the dispute escalated this week after France caught a Scottish-registered scallop dredger fishing without a license, detaining its captain Le Havre, and the EU country threatened sanctions on the UK, Johnson asked EU to “rein in Emmanuel Macron's threats” as it could put the whole EU "in breach”. France, meanwhile, threatened to block the British boats crossing the English Channel and restrict all energy supplies to the Channel Islands. While France claimed that Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson had agreed to work on “practical measures” on the sidelines of the G20, UK’s 10 Downing street denied such claims asking France to back down. “We stand ready to respond should they proceed to break the Brexit agreement,” UK PM Johnson’s spokesman told British press reporters at the G20 summit in Rome.   

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Published November 1st, 2021 at 11:20 IST

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