LONDON: Britain on Friday warned it may implement more checks on European Union fishing boats if France carries out its threat to take retaliatory measures in a deepening row over post-Brexit access rights.

Britain would consider “launching dispute settlement proceedings” and “other practical responses, including implementing rigorous enforcement processes and checks on EU fishing activity in UK territorial waters”, a government spokesman said.

London on Thursday summoned the French ambassador to explain “threats” made over post-Brexit fishing rights, hours after France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex offered to open talks to resolve the increasingly bitter row.

The two sides are at loggerheads over licensing rules for EU boats wanting to operate in waters around Britain and the Channel Islands.

France has been incensed by the rejection of some its vessels by Britain and the self-governing islands of Jersey and Guernsey, which depend on London for defence and foreign affairs.

Paris has warned of retaliatory measures as soon as next week if the licences are not issued, including time-consuming checks on all products and a ban on UK vessels landing seafood at French ports.

French authorities also fined two British boats fishing for scallops during checks on Wednesday, with one detained at Le Havre.

British minister David Frost on Friday raised London’s concerns with EU Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic during talks over the implementation in Northern Ireland of the Brexit deal agreed last year.

Frost “set out to the vice president our concerns about the unjustified measures announced by France earlier this week to disrupt UK fisheries and wider trade, to threaten energy supplies,” the government said.

If the actions were implemented as planned on November 2, Britain said the EU would be in breach of the wide-ranging Brexit deal.

“The government is accordingly considering the possibility, in those circumstances, of launching dispute settlement proceedings,” it added.

French Maritime Minister Annick Girardin dismissed British claims that 98 percent of access applications by EU vessels had been approved, saying the true figure was 90 percent.

“And all the ones without licences are French, except for one or two Belgians,” she said.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2021