Britain, EU strike pessimistic tone in post-Brexit trade talks

Just over two weeks before Britain finally leaves the bloc’s orbit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was also downbeat, saying it would be “very challenging” to overcome the “big differences” that remained.

Britain, EU strike pessimistic tone in post-Brexit trade talks

Both sides have called on the other to shift position to try to safeguard almost a trillion dollars worth of trade from tariffs and quotas when a so-called transition period ends on Dec. 31.

Since Britain left the EU in January, the talks have been largely hamstrung over two issues - the bloc’s fishing rights in British waters and on creating a so-called level playing field providing fair competition rules for both sides.

After a call between Johnson and von der Leyen to take stock on the talks, a spokesman for the British leader said: “The prime minister underlined that the negotiations were now in a serious situation.”

“Time was very short and it now looked very likely that agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changed substantially,” the spokesman added. “... He said that if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms.”

Australia does not have a free trade agreement with the EU and most of their trade is on World Trade Organization rules.

Von der Leyen said she welcomed “substantial progress”.

“Yet big differences remain to be bridged, in particular on fisheries. Bridging them will be very challenging,” she said on Twitter, adding that talks were continuing.

After the leaders’ call, Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost said on Twitter the situation was very serious and “progress seems blocked”.

OPTIMISM DASHED?

Earlier, comments by British interior minister Priti Patel that talks had entered the “tunnel” - EU jargon for the final, secretive make-or-break phase - and by EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier that good progress had been made had buoyed financial markets.

But Michael Gove, a senior British minister who is responsible for implementing an earlier divorce deal, told a parliamentary committee that the probability of reaching a deal was “less than 50%”.

He added that, if the British parliament did not have time to pass the deal into law by Dec. 31, “then the clock has run out and no agreement would have been reached and we will be in a world where we will be trading on WTO terms”.

Gove said later he believed the last possible deadline for getting a deal was in the days immediately after Christmas.