UK, EU leaders to hold talks on post-Brexit ties

WITH THE discussions stuck over the same issues for months, Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU's executive European Commission, will see if there is a route to a deal.

London, Dec. 5: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the European Union's top official are set to discuss the state of play of post-Brexit trade discussions later Saturday after negotiators paused talks in light of their inability to bridge an array of differences.

With the discussions stuck over the same issues for months, Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU's executive European Commission, will see if there is a route to a deal. With the U.K.'s post-Brexit transition period due to conclude at the end of the year, the discussions are clearly facing a crunch point, not least because of the necessary approvals required from both sides.

Without an agreement in place, tariffs will end up being imposed on traded goods at the start of 2021. Months of negotiations have produced agreement on a swath of issues, but serious differences remain over the “level playing field” — the standards the U.K. must meet to export into the bloc — and how future disputes are resolved.

That's key for the EU, which fears 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. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart, David Frost, agreed Friday to “pause” negotiations while they brief political leaders.

"We will keep calm as always and if there is a way, still a way, we will see," Barnier said Saturday morning outside a hotel in London before heading off to Brussels. Though the U.K. left the EU on January 31, it remains within the bloc's tariff-free single market and customs union until the end of this year.

A trade deal by then would ensure there are no tariffs and quotas on trade in goods between the two sides, but there would still be technical costs, partly associated with customs checks and non-tariff barriers on services. Though both sides would suffer economically from a failure to secure a trade deal, most economists think the British economy would take a greater hit, at least in the near-term, as it is relatively more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa.

Politicians differences bridged London, Dec. 5: A week of intense trade talks between Britain and the European Union ended in stalemate Friday, with negotiators stepping back while politicians decide whether major differences can be bridged to avoid a messy, economically disruptive rupture in less than a month.

EU chief negotiator Mihel Barnier and his British counterpart, David Frost, said they had agreed to “pause” negotiations while they brief the two sides' political leaders.

“After one week of intense negotiation in London, the two chief negotiators agreed today that the conditions for an agreement are not met, due to significant divergences on level playing field, governance and fisheries,” Frost and Barnier said in a joint statement.

Talks have seesawed between progress and setbacks all week, as Barnier, Frost and their teams holed up in a London conference center, fueled by deliveries of sandwiches and pizza. British Business Secretary Alok Sharma said earlier Friday that talks were “in a difficult phase,” while France warned it could veto any agreement it didn't like. decide can if be