BRUSSELS – In the decisive final days of talks, the tiny fishing industry is holding up a massive trade deal between the European Union and recently departed Britain, putting at risk hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions of euros in annual production losses.While fishing is a negligible part of the nations’ economies, it is an important point of national pride for coastal and island nations and has a massive impact on politics.
Arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage put so much stock in the importance of fishing that at one point during his successful 2016 campaign to get Britain out of the EU he steamed up the Thames on a fishing vessel.Sir Ivan Rogers, a former career diplomat who long was the UK's man at EU headquarters in Brussels,.