Boardroom Brexit: What the deal means for fishing

Fisheries punched way above its economic weight in these negotiations, and a final compromise was only agreed at the last minute. Many will argue that the quality of the negotiation suffered as a result.

The industries on both sides of the channel are very critical of this part of the TCA as they had differing expectations. What does it provide for? The TCA sets out a transition period until June 2026 to switch to new quota shares that were negotiated at the highest political level. Looking in more detail the cut in the value of the fish caught by EU fishermen in UK waters will be phased in over a transition period of 5.5 years.

The EU fishing fleet will have their access guaranteed but EU fishing rights in UK waters will be reduced by roughly 25 percent (they are currently worth about €650m per year). After the transition, access to waters will depend on annual negotiations, comparably to EU-Norway partnership on fisheries. Retaliatory measures have been included if the UK decided to exclude the EU fishing fleet from its waters, either through tariffs on UK fish exports or other goods and services, or preventing UK boats from fishing in EU waters.