UK Won't Succumb To French Threats Over Fishing Row

A troubling post-Brexit fishing spat between Britain and France showed few signs of abating Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, a day before a threatened French blockade of British boats and trucks, Pan Pylas and Angela Charlton reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The fishing issue is proving to be a chip neither the UK nor France can brush off their shoulders.

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss warned France that the UK will “not roll over” in the face of what she termed “unreasonable” threats from Paris. French fishing crews stood their ground, demanding a political solution to a local dispute that has become the latest battleground between Britain and the European Union.

Both sides have accused each other of contravening the post-Brexit trade deal that the UK signed with the European Union (EU), which came into force at the start of this year.

France has threatened to bar British fishing boats from some of its ports and tighten checks on boats and trucks carrying British goods if more French vessels aren’t licensed to fish in UK waters by Tuesday.

Paris has also suggested it might restrict energy supplies to the Channel Islands — British Crown dependencies that lie off the coast of France and are heavily dependent on French electricity.

“The French need to withdraw those threats otherwise we will use the dispute resolution mechanism in the EU deal to take action,” Truss told BBC radio. “We’re simply not going to roll over in the face of these threats.”

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