UK warns Brexit trade agreement will 'not be easy to achieve' before no deal deadline
Downing Street has said that it will be difficult to finalise a free trade agreement with the European Union before the no deal deadline at the end of this year.
France and Germany also warned that time was running out to avoid no deal, which would mean the UK and EU trading on less lucrative WTO terms and with tariffs from January 1.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman blamed Brussels for the deadlocked negotiations, accusing the EU of blocking talks until the UK made concessions on fishing rights and level playing field guarantees for state aid, which govern subsidies and bailouts.
“We would instead like to settle the simplest issues first in order to build momentum in the talks as time is short on both sides,” he said after describing last week’s round of talks as yielding “little progress”.
“An agreement is still possible and it is still our goal, but it is clear it will not be easy to achieve,” he added.
David Frost and Michel Barnier, the UK and EU’s chief negotiators, met in London on Tuesday for preparatory negotiations ahead of next week’s full round of trade talks in Britain.
“It is important that the UK starts to engage with Michel Barnier in a more realistic and pragmatic way,” an EU diplomat told The Telegraph.
“If Brexit ideology were to trump Brexit pragmatism in the UK government, we would clearly be heading into no-deal territory.”
The diplomat added, “The next negotiation round in September will be crucial. If it ends without any progress as well, the window to clinch a deal will close quickly.”
France has taken one of the hardest lines on Brexit but Clement Beaune, Emmanuel Macron’s Europe minister, admitted yesterday that it was in Paris' interest to curb the economic damage of no deal.
He said, “The no deal is a risk. This does not prevent trade, but there are a number of barriers, such as customs duties. It is in our interest to limit friction, but we will not do so at the price of not respecting the rules".
“Things are not progressing very well,” he said, “The United Kingdom would like to have its cake and eat it too; get out of the European Union and have access to the European market.”
Michael Roth, Germany's Europe minister, told the European Parliament that the EU could not accept being shut out of British fishing waters.
“We fear we might be running out of time,” he said in the same week Angela Merkel suggested the talks could go to the end of 2020 rather than the EU's preferred deadline of the end of October.
“The UK side is now moving away from what we had agreed on a long time ago as a basis for negotiations. Now that doesn’t mean the EU is changing its negotiation stance,” he added.
A European Commission spokesman said that EU officials were conducting a "virtual tour of the capitals" to get the EU ready for the end of the Brexit transition period, whether or not there is a deal.
"Whether or not there's an agreement, at the end of the year, the UK decision to leave the single market in the customs union will inevitably create barriers to trade, and cross border exchanges that simply do not exist today. These changes are unavoidable," the spokesman said.
