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Senior EU and British officials will hold urgent talks next week on the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which has been threatened by London’s attempt to nullify parts of the treaty, Brussels said today.
EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said he would meet senior British minister Michel Gove in Brussels just before Brussels’ month-end deadline for London to withdraw a bill. designed to rewrite the agreement.
And an EU official confirmed that Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier would be in London on Wednesday for informal talks with his British counterpart David Frost.
“But please, dear friends in London: let’s stop the games. Time is running out,” warned German European Affairs Minister Michael Roth when he met with colleagues in Brussels ahead of a summit of EU leaders on Thursday. .
The government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is pushing for legislation designed to nullify parts of the treaty, an act it admits violates international law, and Brussels is furiously defending the deal.
“We are very concerned about the so-called Internal Market Bill, because it violates the guiding principles of the withdrawal agreement, and this is totally unacceptable to us,” said Mr. Roth.
Sefcovic said he would meet with Gove as deputy chairman of the EU-UK Joint Coordination Committee overseeing the divorce agreement.
However, “we will not be renegotiating, but we are dedicated to its full and timely implementation, nothing more and nothing less.”
Parallel to the dispute over the existing deal, which Johnson signed last year and hailed as an “oven-ready” deal to get Britain out of Europe, teams from the EU and the UK are negotiating a potential trade pact.
EU leaders meeting on Thursday will receive a “briefing point” on the progress of these talks, but have for now left the lengthy debate to their negotiator, Mr Barnier.
The next round of trade talks will take place next week in Brussels.
Johnson has set a mid-October deadline for success or failure, and EU officials say the deal must be closed before the end of the month if it is to become law before the end of the year.
Britain left the European Union on January 31 and will leave the bloc’s single market and customs union by the end of the year. Experts fear economic chaos if a new trade deal cannot be reached by then.
But the two sides are still divided on the rules for a “level playing field” of fair competition between companies, on state aid or subsidies for EU and UK companies and on the access of EU ships to the British fishing waters.
And the dispute over the withdrawal agreement has thrown a new key in the works. Johnson’s decision to use national law to overwrite parts of the treaty with the EU has enraged Brussels.
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Meanwhile, an ESRI economist has said that with just three months to go and no clarity on the Brexit trade deal, as of January, consumers can expect additional costs to buy UK products, as well as disruptions in the supply of products for a time.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Today with Claire Byrne, Martina Lawless said that even if there is a deal, consumers will continue to be affected by increased paperwork and delays, which are likely to increase the cost of getting products to the shelves.
He said there will be additional costs to buy UK products, such as products from the online merchant Amazon that will come with a Customs label, and it will be more difficult to ship things to the UK which will see prices rise.
He said there is a risk that lower-income households will be hit the hardest as they spend a much larger proportion of their income on food.
Lawless said there will be quite significant price increases on imported processed foods from the UK, such as ready meals, biscuits and confectionery.
He said that almost a third of the sweets and confectionery products on supermarket shelves are brought in from the UK and will be subject to quite substantial increases in terms of tariffs of around 20-30%.
She said ESRI estimates that an additional € 900 will be added to the average annual household bill, as a result of the cost of fees, but this will be removed if there is a commercial bill.
However, it is possible to get an additional € 400 as a result of increased compliance and paperwork, which will remain regardless of whether or not there is a deal.
He said there will be increased costs for businesses and consumers as if there is no trade agreement, tariffs will apply to goods to and from Ireland and the UK, as well as additional costs in terms of customs procedures, paperwork. and testing needs. .
He said that the current Internal Markets Law has considerably delayed negotiations. “It has been quite detrimental to confidence” and “greatly increases the likelihood that an agreement will not be reached before the end of the year.”
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