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Scottish Fishing Lobby Turns on Johnson for Failing Industry
By Joe Mayes
15 January 2021, 18:59 GMT
A Scottish fishing lobby group that once hailed Brexit as an opportunity slammed U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s trade accord with the European Union, labeling it a “desperately poor deal” for fishermen.
Elspeth Macdonald, chief executive officer of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said the accord had failed to secure an adequate increase in the country’s share of the catch, and had added major obstacles to getting produce to market.
“There is huge disappointment and a great deal of anger about your failure to deliver on promises made repeatedly to this industry,” she wrote in a public letter to Johnson on Friday. “This industry now finds itself in the worst of both worlds.”
Scotland’s fishing industry has been badly disrupted in the days following Britain’s exit from the EU’s single market and customs union, with new customs checks severely curtailing deliveries to the bloc. Some trawlers have even chosen to land their catches in Denmark to avoid chaos at the border.
“Your deal has failed the industry in the short term,” Macdonald said. “Many in the seafood supply chain fear they will not survive.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...iling-industry
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