page_title: Trade negotiation between the UK and the EU
section_title: Fisheries issue
hierarchical_section_title: Trade negotiation between the UK and the EU / Main topics / Fisheries issue
context_page_description: Trade negotiation between the UK and the EU is the negotiation after Brexit between the United Kingdom and the European Union for a trade agreement to make trade easier than it would be without such a deal. The deal might cover both tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade.
  During the Brexit negotiations in 2017, the two sides agreed that trade negotiation could only start after the UK's withdrawal, because such negotiations could not happen when the UK still has a veto right within the EU. For this and other reasons, a transition period after Brexit day was defined to allow those negotiations. The transition period started on 1 February 2020, in accordance with the withdrawal agreement. The transition period is scheduled to end on 31 December 2020, a deadline which could have been extended for two years, if requested by 30 June 2020. The British government declared that it would not apply for any such extension, and did not do so. In addition, it declared that the only kind of trade deal the UK is interested is in, if any, is a Canadian style trade deal.
  The United Kingdom will leave the European Single Market and European Union Customs Union on 1 January 2021.
context_section_description: The fishing sector in the UK has (as of 2018) 22,000 jobs related to fish processing, 6,036 UK-registered vessel, and 11,961 fishermen. In the British economy, the fishing sector has a value of £784 million. In comparison, financial services have a value of £132 billion. Despite being a little proportion of the economy, fishery is of high importance to both the UK and coastal EU states nearby. In 2018, 75 % of all seafood caught in the UK was exported, most to the EU, while of the seafood consumed in the UK, two thirds are imported.
  The EU has a common fisheries policy (CPF), which allows EU fishers access to waters of every other EU member state, outside the first 12 nautical miles (22 km) from the coast. Following the end of the transition period, the UK will become a third party coastal state with, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, an 'exclusive economic zone' of 200 nautical miles from the coast. Under CPF, catch quotas are allocated for species individually, and distribute among the member states, who in turn distribute them to fishers. Most UK quotas are concentrated on few companies, and over half of the quotas are controlled by foreign-owned companies. The UK does not have the fishing capacity to fully catch their allowed quotas.
  The EU has linked negotiations on fishing policy to trade talks, while the UK wishes to keep them apart. A point to be negotiated is the length of the agreement: the EU expects a permanent agreement, the UK expects a Norwegian like annual agreement to be in line with biology of fish, aspirations of fishermen, and fisheries science.
  In exchange for a right for European trawlers to fish in British waters, France proposes that Britain should have the right to sell its fish and seafood products on the European market.
caption: Fishermen sorting velvet crabs at Fionnphort, Scotland
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