Category Archives: Trade policy

Brexit: Boris Johnson says talks in ‘serious situation’ after call with EU chief

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PM says no deal is ‘very likely’ after speaking to Ursula von der Leyen

Boris Johnson claimed the Brexit talks were in a “serious situation” after a call with Ursula von der Leyen, even as the EU’s chief negotiator raised hopes of a weekend Brexit agreement by persuading the European parliament to delay its deal deadline to Sunday.

In a statement released after a short stock-take telephone call on Thursday evening with the European commission president, the prime minister repeated his suggestion that it was “very likely” that an agreement would not be reached, with fisheries the standout issue.

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UK and US close to deal on cutting tariffs, says White House trade chief

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Talks on reducing charges on items such as Scotch whisky follow UK move to drop levy on Boeing

The UK and the United States are hoping to reach an agreement on reducing trade tariffs, according to Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative in Donald Trump’s outgoing administration.

In an interview with the BBC, Lighthizer said he was in talks with the UK’s international trade secretary, Liz Truss, which could remove hefty tariffs imposed by the US on goods including Scotch whisky.

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Johnson and EU vow to go ‘extra mile’ to thrash out Brexit deal

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British negotiators stay on in Brussels but PM says two sides still ‘very far apart’ on key issues

Britain and the EU enter the final stretch of the Brexit negotiations with renewed hope of a deal being struck within days after Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to “go the extra mile” and ordered the resumption of talks in Brussels.

As the prime minister played down expectations following a telephone conversation with the European commission president, EU embassies in Brussels were briefed that “progress has been made” and that “the next days will be important”. UK negotiators are expected to stay in Brussels until at least Tuesday.

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Boris Johnson and EU set Sunday deadline to decide on Brexit deal

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Significant gaps remain between PM and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen after Brussels dinner

A Brexit deal must be sealed by Sunday or there will be no deal, Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agreed after a “lively and frank” three-hour summit that set the stage for a dramatic final act of the negotiations.

Despite nine months of troubled talks, “very large gaps” were said to remain between the UK and EU. The leaders said they should come to a deal or no deal outcome by the end of the weekend, with pressure on both sides to find time for parliamentary ratification.

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For seasoned EU watchers, Brexit trade talks look uncannily like Grexit

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Analysis: While there are similarities with the 2015 clash between Athens and Brussels, there are also key differences

It was a marathon even by the European Union’s standards. For hours, leaders of countries in the eurozone argued, haggled and shouted at each other. After breaks for refreshment, they argued, haggled and shouted some more. Rumours swirled around the packed media room. Eventually, as Brussels was waking to a new morning, the 17-hour overnight summit staggered to an end.

All participants were in agreement that victory had been snatched from the jaws of defeat. Despite the brinkmanship, a deal was eventually done – as seasoned EU watchers had always said it would be, even when all hope seemed lost.

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Boris Johnson: no PM could accept trade terms offered by EU

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Johnson defends UK negotiating stance as he prepares to fly to Brussels for last-ditch Brexit talks

Boris Johnson has claimed no prime minister would be right to accept the trade terms being offered by the EU, as he prepares to fly to Brussels for last-ditch talks.

Asked in the House of Commons by the veteran Tory backbencher Edward Leigh about the prospects for a deal, Johnson said: “Our friends in the EU are currently insisting that if they pass a new law in future with which we in this country do not comply or don’t follow suit, then they want the automatic right to punish us and to retaliate.

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Brexit deal close to being finalised, EU ambassadors told

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Most key issues largely agreed, but there is still a danger of no deal by accident, envoys hear

A trade and security agreement with Britain is close to being finalised but the risk remains of an accidental no-deal Brexit in six weeks, with gaps on the contentious issues “slowly shrinking”, EU ambassadors have been told.

With Michel Barnier in self-isolation after an EU negotiator tested positive for coronavirus, the talks will be conducted almost entirely online over the next few days.

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Failure to seal post-Brexit deal would more than halve UK growth, says KPMG

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Accountancy firm warns of stalled economic recovery without EU trade agreement

Failure to strike a post-Brexit trade deal would cut the UK’s economic growth rate by more than half next year, delaying a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report.

The accountancy firm KPMG said the economy would suffer heavily should the UK fail to secure a trade deal with the EU before the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of December, just as the country attempts to escape the deepest recession since records began.

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Trudeau: UK’s lack of negotiating practice could delay Canada trade deal

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Britain may lack ‘bandwidth to move forward’ as Brexit transition nears end, say PM

Canada could easily negotiate a post-Brexit trade deal with the UK, Justin Trudeau has said, but he warned that talks could be delayed because British negotiators are so out of practice.

Speaking at an online event hosted by the Financial Times, the Canadian prime minister said he remained upbeat about the prospect of a trade deal between the two countries before the end of the year.

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Johnson and EU commission chief to hold talks before decisive week for Brexit deal

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Phonecall with Ursula von der Leyen could be final chance for PM to avert no-deal Brexit

Boris Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, will hold talks on Saturday before a potentially decisive week in the Brexit negotiations, amid growing concern in Brussels at the lack of progress.

UK sources played down expectations of a breakthrough moment but with time short for parliamentary ratification the phonecall may prove to be the final chance for a political intervention in the troubled talks.

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UK will not import chlorinated chicken from US, ministers say

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Britain will also ‘not negotiate to remove ban’ on hormone-fed beef in post-Brexit trade deal

The government has finally vowed not to allow chlorinated chicken or hormone-fed beef on British supermarket shelves, defying demands from the US that animal welfare standards be lowered as part of a future trade deal.

The international trade secretary, Liz Truss, and the environment minister, George Eustice, have also revealed the government will be putting the recently established trade and agriculture commission on a statutory footing with a new amendment to the agriculture bill.

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Brexit talks to resume after Michel Barnier speech breaks impasse

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EU’s chief negotiator meets Downing Street’s threshold for resumption of troubled talks

The Brexit talks will resume on Thursday, with negotiators tasked with working through weekends in pursuit of a deal in the remaining few weeks, after Michel Barnier met the prime minister’s demands for re-engagement.

The impasse was broken after the EU’s chief negotiator made public his intention to “seek the necessary compromises on both sides”, telling the European parliament that he believed an agreement was “within reach” and that he was willing to work “day and night”.

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Boris Johnson tells UK: prepare for a no-deal Brexit

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Prime minister says EU must change its approach to talks if deal to be reached

• Latest Brexit and Covid developments live

Boris Johnson has told Britons to prepare for a no-deal Brexit unless the EU makes a fundamental change in its approach to the deadlocked trade and security talks.

In a televised statement, the prime minister stopped short of walking away from the talks, despite his self-imposed deadline for a deal having passed on Thursday.

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No 10 startled by EU insistence that UK accept Brexit trade terms

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Bloc’s stance apparently taken as challenge to Boris Johnson’s threat to walk out on talks

Downing Street reacted in dismay as Emmanuel Macron led EU leaders in warning Boris Johnson that he must swallow the bloc’s conditions, in what appeared to be taken as a direct challenge to the British prime minister’s threat to walk out on the talks.

At a summit in Brussels, the EU proposed a further “two to three weeks” of negotiations but Europe’s heads of state and government offered Johnson little succour, demanding that he alone needed to “make the necessary moves to make an agreement possible”.

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EU deal still possible, PM to be told, as potential fisheries plan emerges

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UK negotiator to tell Boris Johnson that two more weeks of talks could lead to breakthrough

Boris Johnson will be advised by his chief negotiator that a trade deal with the EU is still possible should the prime minister ditch his deadline and continue to negotiate with Brussels as tentative signs of a compromise on fisheries emerged.

David Frost, who has been in talks with the EU team led by Michel Barnier this week, will inform the prime minister that a further two weeks, at least, of daily talks could result in the remaining gaps being bridged.

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EU needs clear sign UK will get real in Brexit talks, says Irish minister

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Simon Coveney says talks will not progress without signal that UK is ready to show some realism

The EU’s Michel Barnier will not move Brexit talks into the so-called “tunnel” of more intense negotiations “unless he gets a very clear signal from the UK that they are willing to show some flexibility and realism” in its approach to a deal, Ireland’s foreign affairs minister has said.

Simon Coveney, who played a significant role in the first three years of talks, also said the talks would blow up completely if the UK went ahead with clauses in the yet-to-be-tabled finance bill giving ministers unilateral powers over the Northern Ireland protocol for a second time.

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Johnson and Von der Leyen extend Brexit talks by a month

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UK and EU leaders instruct chief negotiators to work harder to close gaps on deal

Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen have approved a further month of Brexit negotiations after agreeing that enough progress has been made to justify a last push to reach a deal on trade and security.

The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, will travel to London this week for talks with his British counterpart, David Frost, and the two sides will then hold follow-up talks in Brussels the week after.

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Boris Johnson to set fishing ultimatum in crunch EU summit

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Buoyed by support for idea from Angela Merkel, PM hopes to overcome French opposition

Boris Johnson will demand that the increasingly isolated French president, Emmanuel Macron, caves in to UK demands on fishing as the price for a trade and security deal at a key meeting with the European commission president on Saturday.

The prime minister will speak to Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday afternoon in a video-conference call to “take stock of negotiations and discuss next steps”.

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Brexit: EU launches legal action against UK for breaching withdrawal agreement

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UK put on formal notice over internal market bill, which ministers admit breaks international law

The EU has launched legal action against the UK after Boris Johnson failed to respond to Brussels’ demand that he drop legislation that would overwrite the withdrawal agreement and break international law.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, announced that the UK had been put on formal notice over the internal market bill tabled by the prime minister last month.

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Brexit: Brussels punctures optimism that deal is in sight

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EU sources fear Boris Johnson hasn’t yet got backing for compromises on state aid to business

Brussels has sought to puncture an outbreak of optimism over an imminent Brexit deal, amid fears Boris Johnson has not secured the backing of key advisers and his party for the compromises needed in the final stretch of negotiations.

With the UK government yet to offer a way forward on the most contentious issues, and trust in Downing Street at a low ebb, senior EU officials treated with scepticism reports that the UK could see a way to secure a deal.

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