UK, French leaders to meet amid flare-up in post-Brexit fishing row

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet French President Emmanuel Macron this weekend amid a row over post-Brexit fishing rights in which France has seized a British boat and London has threatened to board French trawlers.

The flare-up is part of a wider dispute over post-Brexit trade arrangements between Britain and the European Union that could severely disrupt cross-Channel trade and further undermine British-French relations if it spins out of control.

Johnson’s spokesperson said the prime minister and Macron were expected to meet on the margins of the G20 summit of the world’s 20 biggest economies on Rome on Saturday and Sunday.

“He will discuss a range of issues,” he added, without giving details.

France said this week it would impose sanctions on Britain if London does not allow more French trawlers to fish in UK waters, and it detained a British scallop dredger.

French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie said earlier on Friday there had been no progress in talks on granting more licenses for French vessels to fish in UK waters, and said it was right for France to prepare sanctions against Britain. Facing the threat of extra customs checks on British goods and potentially higher energy tariffs from France if talks fail, British Environment Secretary George Eustice said: “Two can play at that game.”

“Obviously it’s always open to us to always increase the enforcement that we do on French vessels, to board more of them if that’s what they’re doing to our vessels,” he told BBC television.
LONDON/LE HAVRE, Oct 29 (Reuters)