UK-EU trade talks resume, but with ‘very large gaps’
BRUSSELS — U.K.-EU negotiators will resume talks on a Brexit trade deal after a dinner summit Wednesday night between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — but Britain said “very large gaps” remain between the two sides.
Johnson’s office said the two leaders set Sunday as the deadline to decide whether there will be an agreement, or a tumultuous no-deal split at the end of the month.
Johnson flew to Brussels in hopes that top-level political talks could put new momentum into talks that are stuck on issues including fishing rights and competition rules.
But there was no breakthrough at the three-hour meeting that, which Downing Street described as “frank.”
Britain left the EU on Jan. 31 but remains in its economic structures until the end of the year. That means a serious economic rupture on Jan. 1 that could be chaotic if there is no trade agreement.
The two leaders had hoped to inject political momentum into trade talks that have become hopelessly deadlocked on fishing and other key aspects of the future relationship. But Britain and the EU gave ominously opposing views of the main sticking points — and each insisted the other must move to reach agreement.
“A good deal is still there to be done,” Johnson insisted. But he told lawmakers in the House of Commons that the bloc’s demands that the U.K. continue to adhere to its standards or face retaliation were not “terms that any prime minister of this country should accept.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “there is still the chance of an agreement,” but stressed that the EU would not compromise on its core principles. Merkel told the German parliament that the bloc would “take a path without an agreement if there are conditions from the British side that we can’t accept.”
The U.K. left the EU on Jan. 31 after 47 years of membership, but remains within the bloc’s tarifffree single market and customs union until the end of the year. Reaching a trade deal by then would ensure there are no tariffs or quotas on trade in goods on Jan. 1, although there would still be new costs and red tape for businesses.
When Johnson was crossing over the English Channel to
Brussels, down below the impact of Brexit was already visible with extra-long traffic jams in France’s Calais, where truckers were trying to meet the demands of U.K. companies that want to lay in extra stock ahead of potential disruption on Jan. 1.
The EUfears Britain will slash social and environmental standards and pump state money into U.K. industries, becoming a low-regulation economic rival on the bloc’s doorstep — hence the demand for strict “level playing field” guarantees in exchange for access to its markets.
The U.K. government sees Brexit as about sovereignty and “taking back control” of the country’s laws, borders and waters. It claims the EU is trying to bind Britain to the bloc’s rules indefinitely.