Good chance of Brexit deal within days, Ireland says

There is a good chance that the EU and Britain could strike a Brexit trade deal within days, Ireland said yesterday, as the two sides race to avoid a turbulent climax to the Brexit divorce in less than four weeks.

The UK leaves the EU’s orbit on December 31, when a transition period of informal membership ends following its formal departure last January, and the sides are trying to secure a deal to govern nearly $1-trillion (R15.35-trillion) in annual trade.

“It ’ s the time to hold our nerve and trust [EU chief negotiator] Michel Barnier.

“And I believe if we do that, there’s a good chance that we can get a deal across the line in the next few days,” Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told Ireland’s Newstalk Radio.

“There will be no further extensions. There will be no extra time.”

Negotiators have been going back and forth for weeks over three main unresolved issus — fisheries, economic fair play and settling disputes.

Failure to secure a deal would snarl borders, spook financial markets and disrupt delicate supply chains that stretch across Europe and beyond — just as the world grapples with the vast economic cost of the Covid-19 outbreak.

British education secretary Gavin Williamson said good progress was being made but that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government would not sign up to a deal that was not in Britain’s interest.

“I’m confident from what I hear that progress, good progress, is being made but we ’ re going to do a deal that is right for Britain, if such a deal is available, ” Williamson told Sky.

“If such a deal isn’t available, then we’re not going to sign up to something that is to our detriment.”

Ireland’s Coveney said he believed Britain wanted a deal though its government did not always act as if it did, citing a planned finance bill that would allow Britain to undercut parts of the Brexit divorce treaty.

“That ’ s hardly consistent with a government that’s looking to build a positive partnership and a future relationship with its close neighbour in the EU, ” Coveney said.

An agreement meant “finding a way to get a fair deal for both sides on fisheries, which has proven really difficult”, he said, adding that fair competition and governance were the other main issues left.