Britain, EU clash over Brexit timetable for trade deal

to change the narrative that it’s been too vague, and by doing so jolt the EU into talking trade sooner.

But that goal is unlikely to be achieved in the upcoming rounds of talks and “unsurprisingly, Brussels is insisting that the divorce must be settled first,” writes Mujtaba Rahman, European managing director of Eurasia Group.

With the clock ticking down to the UK’s March 2019 departure, and the two sides clashing over many key issues, Brexit Secretary David Davis seems bent on reviving a debate over whether talks should run in parallel rather than in the strict order the EU has laid out.

Such an ambition will draw short shrift from the EU. Its chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, last week reiterated that the other 27 governments won’t allow trade talks to start until “sufficient progress” has been made resolving residency rights, the UK’s exit bill and the border with Ireland.

The original hope was to reach this milestone in October — in time for a summit of EU leaders — but that is now in doubt amid criticism within the EU of sluggish progress and a lack of detail from the British.

“There are so many difficult topics on the table, difficult issues there, that one cannot expect all those issues will be solved according to the schedule made in the first place,” Slovenia’s Cerar told the Guardian. “What is important now is that the three basic issues are solved in reasonable time.”

Having once predicted differences over the timetable would prove the “row of the summer,” Davis backtracked in June by appearing to sign on to the EU’s preferred plan. But writing in the Sunday Times, he insisted it would be helpful “to run aspects of the negotiations twice,” pointing to Northern Ireland as an issue where the divorce and commerce are intertwined.

“It is simply not possible to reach a near-final agreement on the border issue until we’ve begun to talk about how our broader future customs arrangements will work,” he wrote. “Furthermore, if we get the comprehensive free trade agreement we’re seeking as part of our future partnership, solutions in Northern Ireland are easier to deliver.”

This more combative approach was criticised by anti-Brexit campaigners as casting doubt on the