Talks ‘paused’ as gaps remain
A week of intense trade talks between the United Kingdom and the European Union has ended in stalemate, with attention turning to political leaders who will decide whether significant differences can be bridged.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he and his British counterpart, David Frost, had agreed to ‘‘ pause’’ negotiations yesterday while they briefed their political leaders. He tweeted that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen would discuss the state of play over the weekend.
‘‘The conditions for an agreement are not met, due to significant divergences on level playing field, governance and fisheries,’’ Barnier said.
UK officials poured cold water on hopes of an imminent breakthrough, and France said it could veto any agreement it didn’t like.
Barnier, Frost and their teams have spent the week locked in talks in a London conference centre. British officials told media oulets that the EU had set back negotiations by making lastminute demands – an allegation the bloc denies.
The UK left the EU early this year, but remains part of the bloc’s economic embrace during an 11-month transition as the two sides try to negotiate a new free trade deal to take effect on January 1. Any deal must be approved by lawmakers in Britain and the
EU before the end of the year.
Talks have dragged on as one deadline after another has slipped by. First, the goal was a deal by October, then by mid-November.
If there is no deal, New Year’s Day will bring huge disruption, with the overnight imposition of tariffs and other barriers to UKEU trade. The burden will fall most heavily on Britain, which does almost half its trade with the EU.
Months of tense negotiations have produced agreement on a range of issues, but serious differences remain over the ‘‘level playing field’’ – the standards the UK must meet to export to the EU – and how future disputes will be resolved.
This is key for the EU, which fears that Britain will slash social and environmental standards and pump state money into its industries, becoming a low-regulation economic rival on the bloc’s doorstep.
But the British government, which sees Brexit as about ‘‘ taking back control’’ from
Brussels, is resisting curbs on its freedom to set future economic policies.
Another sticking point is fishing, a small part of the UK’s economy but with an outsized symbolic importance for Europe’s maritime nations. EU countries want their boats to be able to keep fishing in British waters, while the UK insists that it must control access and quotas.
On Tuesday, Britain’s House of Commons will vote on a bill that gives the UK the power to breach parts of the legally binding withdrawal agreement it struck with the EU last year. The bill has been condemned as breaching international law, including by many MPs from Johnson’s own Conservative Party.