Brexit trade talks ‘in final few days’
A BREAKTHROUGH is needed in the “next few days” if talks with the EU on a postBrexit trade deal are to succeed, a senior Government minister has warned.
Negotiations were resuming in Brussels yesterday after Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen ordered a push to try to overcome the remaining differences.
The two leaders – who spoke for over an hour on Saturday in an attempt to break the stalemate – are due to hold a further phone call this evening to assess whether an agreement is possible.
Irish premier Micheal Martin warned that the talks were on a “knife edge”.
“My gut instinct is that it is 50-50 right now. Things are on a knife edge and it is serious,” he told RTE. “I don’t think one can be overly optimistic about a resolution emerging and my sense, having spoken to some of the key principals here, that this is a very challenging issue to resolve, particularly around the level playing field.”
Earlier, Environment Secretary George Eustice warned the talks were in a “very difficult position” after what a series of “setbacks”. He accused the EU of introducing “a whole load of additional demands” late in the day and insisting on “ludicrous” conditions on future fishing rights.
“It is in a very difficult position – there is no point denying that,” he told Sky. “We will continue to work on these negotiations until there is no point doing so any further, but there is no point denying that what happened late last week was a setback.”
Speaking later on BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show, he added: “I think we probably are now in the final few days in terms of deciding whether there can be an agreement. Of course if the ambience warms up again and actually great progress is made and it is just about sorting out the detail, then you can always find more time, you can always extend. But I think unless we can resolve these quite fundamental divergences at the moment, then we are going to have to take a position in the next few days.”
With time rapidly running out before the Brexit transition period concludes at the end of the month, the chief negotiators Lord Frost and Michel Barnier are meeting in a last-ditch attempt to resolve the remaining issues.
In a joint statement following their call, Mr Johnson and Ms von der Leyen acknowledged that “significant differences” remained on fishing rights, competition rules and the mechanisms for resolving disputes.
“Both sides underlined that no agreement is feasible if these issues are not resolved,” they said. “Whilst recognising the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved.”
Ahead of the meeting, however, British sources warned there was no guarantee they would succeed.
“This is the final throw of the dice,” said one UK source close to the negotiations.