BRISTOL, England – As an island and an ancient seafaring nation, the fishing communities of the United Kingdom have a major influence on the country’s identity.
It should therefore come as no surprise that their fate threatens Brexit negotiations, with politicians promising fishermen to be big winners after the UK leaves the European Union.
But now many members of the fishing community say they are being let down by the government. Instead of boosting the industry, they say, the new trade deal could not live up to the Brexit promises of the legislators, they suffocated matters with red tape and made the struggling sector disappear.
“The deal was absolutely disgraceful and outrageous – that’s the only way to describe it,” said David Pessell, managing director of Plymouth Trawler Agents, a fish auction business in the south-west of England. “They have broken their word in every case that is in operation.”
Pessell, who voted to leave the EU in 2016, is far from alone in his belief that Brexit’s announced rewards for the fishing industry could largely not materialize. Few in the seafood sector are happy with the way things have turned out, with the details and implications of the UK-EU trade agreement confirming fears and hopes in the industry.
It was not supposed to be that way. After all, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has made the fate of the fishermen in the country a central plan of his message.
“For the first time since 1973, we will be an independent coastal state with full control over our waters,” Johnson said in a December 24 speech announcing the new trade agreement, days before the country’s economic separation from the EU. completed on 31 December.
Controlling the sea is likely to never be a major economic concern for the UK. After all, the fishing industry contributed less than 1 percent to the country’s gross domestic product in 2019. But the symbolic importance of the industry meant that in the eleventh-hour trade negotiations, the issue became a major bottleneck.
“He should have pushed it more, he promised it, he really promised we would get our coastal waters back,” said Phil Trebilcock, a fisherman in the southwestern coastal town of Newquay, of Johnson. ” Ah, yes, we’ll get it, we’ll get it, ” and in the end they did not, ” he said, imitating members of the British government.
Trebilcock, 67, was one of the fishermen who spoke to NBC News in the summer of 2017 about what Brexit could mean for the industry. At the time, he and others said they hoped the liberation of Brussels from the UK would enable the UK to withdraw from the EU’s complex quota system, which determines how many fish its vessels can catch, and an end can make to foreign boats carrying fish in their waters.
Today, he is disappointed that the agreement allows some foreign boats access to the country’s coastal waters for at least the next five and a half years, and says a gradual increase in the amount of seafood British fishermen are allowed to fish in the UK waters over the same period do not go far enough. Thereafter, reciprocal access to territorial waters and new quotas will have to be negotiated.
Download the NBC News app for news and politics
While many of the fishermen who spoke to NBC News in 2017 welcomed Brexit, a large number of people who processed and exported fish expressed their concern about the impending divorce. Some of their fears have now been realized, as the fallout from the new trade agreement is already being felt.
Seafood exporters are complaining that they are incurring new costs due to the extensive paperwork now required to deliver goods to the mainland, which is a major concern as the UK exports most of the fish it catches.
Some also say that border controls and customs issues have caused significant delays in trucks transporting the perishable goods abroad, at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has already led to lower market prices and demand.
“Since we left Europe, it has been an absolute nightmare,” said Ian Perkes, a fish exporter from Brixham, a fishing village in the English county of Devon.
Perkes, who voted to leave the EU, said he had lost thousands of pounds in sales due to the red tape because he initially could not export to the mainland because he did not have the right paperwork.
Although logistical problems have begun to ease, he says he is still concerned that his business will not be able to survive if the increased cost of the routine paperwork required to export to the EU continues.
“If I had known it would be the result, I obviously would not have voted to leave,” he said.
On 18 January, seafood companies held a rally in London by driving delivery trucks as far as Scotland past the Houses of Parliament, with signs declaring ‘Brexit massacre’ and ‘Incompetent government destroying shellfish industry!’
Johnson said the issues were ‘dental problems’ and promised a £ 23m compensation fund for businesses that had experienced bureaucratic delays and problems in delivering their goods ‘without their own fault’.
But Perkes said any compensation would not be enough as it would not cover the running costs faced by exporters due to Brexit.
“It all ended up in a mess,” he said. “We are very, very disappointed.”