EU, UK step back from Brexit void

Sides agree to continue talks but little progress made

Teetering on the brink of a nodeal Brexit departure, Britain and the European Union stepped back from the void yesterday and agreed to continue trade talks, although both downplayed the chances of success.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen ditched a selfimposed deadline and promised to “go the extra mile” to clinch a postBrexit trade agreement that would avert New Year’s chaos and costs for cross-border commerce.

“Where there’s life, there’s hope,” said Johnson, offering little else as rationale to keep on with talks that have struggled to make headway for most of the year and need to be finished before January 1, when the transition period for Britain, which left the EU last January, ends.

With hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of billions in trade at stake, von der Leyen said after her phone call with Johnson that “we both think it is responsible at this point in time to go the extra mile”.

All this, she added, “despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations and despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over”.

UK and EU negotiators were still talking at EU headquarters yesterday, with less than three weeks to go until the UK leaves the economic embrace of the 27-nation bloc.

But their leaders failed to present visible progress on fair-competition rules, mechanisms for resolving future disputes and fishing rights.

Johnson said the “most likely” outcome was that the two sides wouldn’t reach a deal and would trade on World Trade Organisation terms, with the tariffs and barriers that would bring. European Council President Charles Michel warned there could not be a deal “at any price”. “What we want is a good deal that respects these principles of economic fair play.”

It remains unclear how much of the gap between the two sides is negotiating tactics and how much reflects fundamental differences that make a deal unlikely.

“Negotiations need to have a purpose,” said Fabian Zuleeg of the EPC think tank. “We just spent another four to five days not moving forward, so adding more days doesn’t really help.”

He said the extension of talks just seems an indication “that neither side wants to be blamed for no deal”.

It has been four and a half years since Britons voted narrowly to leave the EU and — in the words of the Brexiteers’ slogan — “take back control” of the UK’S borders and laws.

It took more than three years of wrangling before

Britain left the bloc’s

Ursula von der Leyen political structures on January 31. Disentangling economies that have become closely entwined as part of the EU’S single market for goods and services took even longer.

The UK has remained part of the single market and customs union during an 11-month post-brexit transition period. That means so far, many people will have noticed little impact from Brexit.

On January 1, it will feel real. New Year’s Day will bring huge changes, even with a deal. No longer will goods and people be able to move between the UK and its continental neighbours.

Exporters and importers face customs declarations, goods checks and other obstacles. EU citizens will no longer be able to live and work in Britain without a visa — though that doesn’t apply to the more than 3 million already there — and Britons can no longer automatically work or retire in the EU.

There are still unanswered questions about

significant areas, including security cooperation between the two sides and access to the EU market for Britain’s huge financial services sector.

Without a deal, the disruption would be far greater. The UK government has acknowledged a chaotic exit is likely to bring gridlock at Britain’s ports, temporary shortages of some goods and price increases for staple foods. Tariffs will be applied to many UK goods, including 10 per cent on cars and more than 40 per cent on lamb, hurting the UK economy as it struggles to rebound from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

While both sides want a deal, they have fundamentally different views of what it entails. The EU fears Britain will slash social and environmental standards and pump state money into UK industries, becoming a lowregulation economic rival on the bloc’s doorstep, so is demanding strict “level playing field” guarantees in exchange for access to its market.

The UK government claims the EU is trying to bind Britain to the bloc’s rules and regulations indefinitely, rather than treating it as an independent nation. — AP