Now or never in trade talks for U.K., EU

BRUSSELS — The European Union and the United Kingdom are heading into the weekend on a “last attempt” to clinch a post-brexit trade deal, with EU fishing rights in British waters the most notable remaining obstacle to avoid a chaotic and costly changeover in the new year.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday that the only way to get a deal is for the 27-nation bloc to compromise, because “the U.K. has done a lot to try and help, and we hope that our EU friends will see sense and come to the table with something themselves.”

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told the EU parliament that both sides are in the “home straight of the negotiations,” which have already come a long way in nine months of talks but are still short of a final compromise.

Barnier called it “a very serious and somber situation” if a deal falls through, with the jobs of hundreds of thousands of people at stake.

The European Parliament has set a Sunday night deadline for the talks, since it still will have to approve any deal before Dec. 31, when a transition period following Britain’s Jan. 31 withdrawal from the EU will expire.

Fishing remained the stumbling bloc on Friday, several diplomats said, with the two sides in wide disagreement over the phase-out period during which the U.K. would progressively bar EU boats from its waters and how big a catch EU trawlers would be able to hang on to.

A failure to reach a post-brexit deal would lead to more chaos on the borders at the start of 2021 as new tariffs would add to other impediments to trade enacted by both sides. The talks have bogged down on two main issues over the past days: the EU’S access to U.K. fishing waters and assurances of fair competition between businesses.