⁍ A French EU lawmaker said there could be no annual quota negotiation in a trade deal with Britain.

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⁍ The EU wants to secure consistent rights to fish in British waters.

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⁍ Britain wants a deal more like that of non-EU member Norway.

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– Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union in March, but negotiations on a post-Brexit trade deal are ongoing—and one of the biggest sticking points is fish. The BBC reports that Britain wants to keep close ties to the EU’s single market in exchange for continued access to British waters. The EU, for its part, wants to give Britain consistent rights to fish in EU waters. But France, the EU’s second-largest member, wants to avoid annual negotiations over access and quotas. “Who will invest in a fishing boat worth 3 million euros if they don’t know whether they have the right to fish in two years time?” Pierre Karleskind, a French EU lawmaker, tells Reuters. “You could ask ‘why should Greece care about fishing in the North Sea?’ But if we show weakness in the face of claims in the North Sea, what signal are we sending to Turkey in the Mediterranean?” The other two most contentious issues in the negotiations are fair competition and ways to settle disputes. Sources tell Reuters that Britain and the EU made progress last week, but there was no breakthrough on fisheries or the other two most contentious issues—fair competition and ways to settle disputes. The two sides have given until mid-October to assess if a deal is in the making, but sources tell Reuters the EU is gearing up to keep negotiating until as late as mid-November.