No Brexit trade deal yet as serious issues remain, British minister

The United Kingdom and the European Union have still not clinched a Brexit trade deal to avoid a turbulent split in just eight days’ time because of serious disagreements about competition and fishing, a British minister said on Wednesday.

Since formally exiting the EU on Jan. 31, the UK has been negotiating a free trade deal with the bloc in an attempt to ease its exit from the single market and customs union at the end of this year.

Thus far, no deal has been done and both sides have given an exhausting array of conflicting signals that indicate, variously, that a deal is imminent, that talks have far to go and that a disorderly no-trade deal exit could be on the cards.

“I’m still reasonably optimistic but there’s no news to report to you this morning,” British Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky News amid speculation in London that a deal could be announced on Wednesday.

“There’s still the same serious areas of disagreement whether that’s on fisheries or the level playing field,” he said. “But at the moment there isn’t sufficient progress. It isn’t a deal that the prime minister feels he can sign us up to.”

Ultimately, UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is grappling with a deepening COVID-19 outbreak and a border crisis at Europe’s busiest truck port, will have to decide if the narrow deal on offer is worth signing up to.

Walking away might elicit applause from many Brexit supporters at home but would trigger severe trade disruption and end the EU divorce in acrimony.

An accord would ensure that the goods trade which makes up half of annual EU-UK commerce, worth nearly a trillion dollars in all, would remain free of tariffs and quotas.

SS