Both of these articles caused disputes between France and Britain. During the war, English fishermen and settlers had moved into the southeastern part of the French Shore, between Bonavista and Cape St. John. The French protested that they possessed an exclusive right to the French Shore fishery, and rejected the British notion that vessels of both nations could fish there concurrently. The issue was not resolved, and nor were a number of difficulties relating to St. Pierre and Miquelon. The French argued that they had every right to use the islands for any purpose they chose. The British insisted that they were no more than a shelter, but could do little to curb French activities there.

These problems were addressed at the negotiating table at the end of the American Revolutionary War, in which France had intervened on the side of the Americans. The French government wanted an exclusive coastal fisher, and the restoration of St. Pierre and Miquelon without any conditions whatsoever. The British government was conciliatory, and in the end a compromise was reached. France gave up its former fishing rights in Bonavista and Notre Dame bays, accepted new boundaries at Cape St. John and Cape Ray, and was granted St. Pierre and Miquelon "in full right". However, declarations appended to the treaty defined these articles in ambiguous language which was to cause problems for many years.