Time and trust running out in Brexit talks
LONDON: The United Kingdom and European Union are starting a key week of Brexit talks, with the bloc stiffening its demands over how any trade deal will be enforced after losing trust in Boris Johnson because of his attempt to rewrite last year’s divorce agreement.
The final round of scheduled discussions between the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, and his British counterpart, David Frost, begins in Brussels today with officials on both sides expressing cautious optimism a deal can be reached.
If they don’t, Britain would be almost certain to crash out of the EU’s single market at the end of the year. Businesses and consumers would be left grappling with additional costs and disruption as quotas and tariffs return for the first time in a generation.
The two main obstacles remain in deciding which of the EU’s state aid rules the UK will have to follow after leaving, and what access fishing boats from the bloc will have to British waters.
But doubts about Johnson’s willingness to abide by pledges he has previously made have only added another layer of difficulty to striking a deal.
Johnson’s Internal Market Bill would break some of the agreements the UK made when it left the EU to prevent customs controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, a move that the UK government concedes breaks international law.
EU officials say the disagreement can be ironed out — or made moot if the two sides reach a zero-tariff, zero-quota trade agreement. But the bloc has threatened Johnson with legal action unless the government amends or withdraws the legislation by the middle of this week.
It’s possible the negotiations will drag on beyond Johnson’s Oct 15 deadline, but not by far. The EU views the end of next month as the very last moment to sign a deal. It will need to translate a treaty of hundreds of pages into all its official languages to give to each of its 27 governments, and then be ratified by the European Parliament — all by Dec 31.