History of the North Sea claimed no more than narrow coastal waters. In the last few decades things have changed. The countries bordering the North Sea all claim the twelve nautical miles (22 km) of territorial waters within which they have, for example, exclusive fishing rights. Iceland, however, as a result of the Cod Wars has exclusive fishing rights for from its coast, into parts of the North Sea. The Common Fisheries Policy of the EU exists to coordinate fishing rights and assist with disputes between EU states and the EU border state of Norway. After the discovery of mineral resources in the North Sea,
Cod fishing in Newfoundland that the fisheries were returning to their original abundance, just more slowly than had been anticipated. The "Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement" (CETA) between Canada and the European Union is a Free Trade Agreement which is still under negotiation as of May 2015. The provincial government has argued that the Federal government of Canada in Ottawa reneged on a deal to pay $280 million in exchange for its relinquishment of minimum processing requirements as part of CETA. Those rules helped protect jobs in fish plants, especially in rural areas hit hard by the cod moratorium since 1992. Cod fishing in