Leaders concede big gaps remain in post Brexit talks

The UK and the European Union provided sober updates yesterday on the state of post-brexit trade discussions, with only two weeks to go before a potentially chaotic split.

While Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union’s executive commission, noted “substantial progress on many issues”, she voiced concerns about thediscussions taking place around fishing rights. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also warned that that a no-deal outcome seemed “very likely”.

The two spoke yesterday evening, their latest in a series of conversations in the past couple of weeks aimed at unclogging the talks that have moved at a snail’s pace ever since the UK left the EU on January 31.

The UK still remains within the EU’S tariff-free single market and customs union until December 31. A failure to reach a post-brexit deal would likely lead to chaos on the borders at the start of 2021 as tariffs and other impediments to trade are enacted by both sides.

The talks have got bogged downon three main issues – the EU’S access to UK fishing waters, the level playing field to ensure fair competition between businesses and the governance of any deal.

Following their latest conversation, von der Leyen warned that bridging big differences, in particular on fisheries, “will be very challenging”. Negotiations, she added, would continue today.

According to a statement from Johnson’s office at 10 Downing Street, the prime minister stressed that “time was very short” and that it “now looked very likely that agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changed substantially”.

Johnson, like von der Leyen, focused on the lack of progress on fisheries. which has proved to be a hugely intractable issue in the talks – even though it accounts for only a small amount of economic output.

Earlier, the European Parliament issued a three- day ultimatum to negotiators to strike a trade deal if it’s to be in a position to ratify an agreement this year.

European lawmakers said theywill need to have the terms of any deal in front of them by late Sunday if they are to organise a special gathering before the end of the year.

If a deal comes later, it could only be ratified in 2021, as the parliament wouldn’t have enough time to debate the agreement before that.

AP