EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement: Fishing Industry

Richard Thomson Excerpts

Thursday 14th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[George Eustice]

My hon. Friend raises an important point, because many of the problems we have are often down to different interpretations of the official control regime in different countries, with Ireland, the Netherlands and France in some cases having different views on what is required. We are working very closely with them. We met Irish counterparts on Friday. We met French officials on Tuesday and have further meetings planned with them, and we met Dutch officials yesterday.

[Richard Thomson (Gordon) (SNP) [V]]

In the lead-up to the trade and co-operation agreement, John Ross Jr in Aberdeen said that it

“had to endure the government issuing a barrage of useless information”.

D. R. Collin in Eyemouth has said that Brexit has more or less finished the business. Prices at the quayside at Peterhead fish market are now 80% below normal. All of that can be taken together with what was described on the front page of the Fishing News as the Prime Minister’s “Brexit betrayal”. Is it not the case that rather than the promised sea of opportunity, through their incompetence the UK Government are now in danger of delivering instead a sea of insolvency for the Scottish seafood industry?

[George Eustice]

The responsibility for issuing the export health certificates that are causing these challenges rests with the Scottish Government, but I would like to pay tribute to Food Standards Scotland, which is working very hard to resolve some of the issues being encountered.