Eliminating post-Brexit trade and economic friction between the UK and its erstwhile European Union partners necessitated months of hard negotiations for a divorce deal and then a Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA). But, as Northern Ireland discovered with London's willingness to repudiate the protocol, or unilaterally reinterpret it, eliminating friction also requires good-faith implementation of the letter and spirit of agreements.
Now a trade war may break out between France and the UK over the latter's interpretation of the TCA provisions for French trawlers' access to historic fishing grounds. Delays and refusals to issue licences to boats which have traditionally fished waters six to 12 nautical miles off Britain's shores, as well as in the seas off Jersey, have sparked more than a war of words.
Paris on Wednesday said it will increase customs and sanitary controls on freight at the border, notably on the key Calais-Dover crossing, make stricter checks of trucks coming in and leaving France – likely to affect Irish trucks still using the landbridge – and ban trawlers from landing catches in some French ports. Yesterday the French also detained a British trawler for illegal fishing in its waters, and threatened to cut cross-Channel electricity supplies. France’s Europe minister Clément Beaune warned: “It is time to speak the language of force because I fear that it is all the government of the UK understands.” The UK has threatened retaliation.
Fishing was the last of a series of hard-fought battles dealt with under the TCA – a controversial compromise that acknowledged both UK sovereignty over its waters and the latter’s willingness to guarantee traditional EU fishing rights in exchange for access to EU markets for British landings. UK licensing of French vessels, however, has seen what the French claim are overly onerous demands for proof of historic fishing. Fewer than a third of French licences applied for in the six-12 mile zone have been granted. A legacy of dishonoured agreements is hardly the basis for confidence in the London’s word.