BRUSSELS (AP) – European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Monday that he remains firmly convinced that a trade deal with Britain is possible, narrowing down the disputes to be resolved before the New Year to two. .
Barnier said that after nine months of negotiations, it remained to reach an agreement on competition rules and fishing rights, without already mentioning the issue of legal mechanisms to resolve future disputes, an issue that had also weighed down the talks.
“Two conditions have not yet been resolved,” he said upon arrival for a briefing with the 27 EU members on the status of the talks. He was expected to continue contacts with his British counterpart David Frost later on Monday. “This agreement is still possible,” he added.
Both sides were still on the brink of a no-deal break, but have pledged to make one last attempt before January 1, when the transition period ends after Britain’s departure on January 31.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, abandoned a deadline they had imposed and promised to take “one more step” to seek an agreement that avoids chaos and costs for cross-border trade with the new year.
Barnier is willing to accept trade with Britain without quotas or tariffs, but only if they abide by the rules and regulations that have made the single market of nearly 500 million consumers so successful. “Free and fair competition, free and fair, fair and open, the two go together,” Barnier said.
Johnson, however, says he doesn’t want British companies to be constrained by EU restrictions, especially if they had to progressively adapt to European standards in the future.
On fishing, Barnier demanded “an agreement that guarantees reciprocal, I insist, reciprocal access to markets and waters.” He noted that just as EU fishermen want to continue to fish in British waters, the British fishing industry is highly dependent on its exports to the 27-nation bloc.
Johnson has made fishing and British control over its waters a key demand in the long campaign to leave the EU. Four and a half years have passed since the British decided by a narrow majority to leave the bloc and, as the electoral slogan put it, “regain control” of British laws and borders.
Johnson said over the weekend that the “most likely” outcome would be for the two sides to fail to reach an agreement and trade under the terms of the World Trade Organization, which would involve tariffs and bureaucratic barriers.
Following Barnier’s briefing to ambassadors of the EU members, a diplomat from the bloc said that “now there could be a visible narrow path to an agreement, if the negotiators can overcome the remaining obstacles in the coming days. Some progress has been made in the negotiations in recent days. ” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were ongoing.
Exporters and importers face customs declarations, merchandise checks and other obstacles. EU citizens will no longer be able to live and work in Britain – although that does not affect the more than 3 million already there – and British people will no longer be able to work or retire automatically in the EU.
If there is no agreement, the blow would be much greater. The British government has recognized that a chaotic departure would likely lead to traffic jams in British ports, temporary shortages of some products and price rises in basic foods. Tariffs would be applied to many British products, for example 10% on cars and 40% on lamb, which will hurt the British economy, already affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
