God save the fish: the abyss of electoral politics in trade talks––a Brexit case study
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Citation
Abstract
During the ‘exit negotiations’ between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European
Union (EU), the relatively economically insignificant fishing industry received a
disproportionate share of not just UK media attention, but global press as well; not to mention an
array of political machinations which almost halted a free trade agreement between two of the
world’s largest trading partners. This evaluation seeks to understand why such disproportional
influence existed. Why were both the EU and the UK coming to blows over something as
seemingly innocuous as fishing; why were they willing to risk the most significant trade
agreement in recent European history over a few fish? Existing subject matter literature cites
history and symbolism as the main factors that brought fishing into the limelight, almost gilling a
multi-billion-dollar trade deal between these two primary trade partners. However, while this
paper concurs with existing literature analysis, it finds further illumination in the murky waters
of electoral politics. It argues that electoral politics also brought fishing to the trade talk surface
as the Conservative Party leveraged the industry to demonstrate that they were protecting a
disenfranchised industry, while aiming to convey the benefits of Brexit to maintain votes and
prevent Scottish succession. On a broader scale, this paper is about the potential ramifications
that domestic politicians have on free trade agreements, especially in this new global populist era
where the leverage of the disenfranchised is key; it is an affirmation of the American saying that
“all politics is local.
Description
Honors thesis. B.A. in International Relations, Spring 2021, Boston University.