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British negotiator David Frost met with European Union negotiator Michel Barnier before the leaders’ speech at the EC headquarters in Brussels.
Sunday is another set of negotiation deadlines that had to be final. Just over two weeks before Britain left the European Union single market, tensions are mounting.
On Saturday, Britain dramatically declared that as of January 1, its warships would secure maritime borders with EU countries and would not allow EU trawlers to enter common fisheries in UK waters if they were to. parties decided on Sunday to end the free trade agreement. In some of these fisheries, the British and Europeans have been fishing together for centuries.
The tone of Brussels was not so militant. Von der Leyen said the EU will respect UK sovereignty after the end of Britain’s post-Brexit transition on December 31, but neither country wanted to commit to core principles.
Britain will leave the single market and the EU customs union later this year. If no other liaison agreement is reached by then, both parties will have to comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, which means tariffs, quotas and a lot of paperwork for importers. Furthermore, failed negotiations could jeopardize relations between London and Brussels for many years.
On Wednesday, after von der Leyen delivered a “lively and interesting” but unwavering working dinner with Johnson in Brussels, the EC chief said he had agreed “to make a decision by the end of this weekend.”
Much of the text of a potential trade deal is said to have been drafted, but Britain rejects Brussels’s request for a mechanism that would allow the EU to react quickly if UK and EU trade rules become uneven over time. and they put continental companies at a disadvantage.
“Protecting the single market is a red line for the European Union. What we have proposed to the UK respects British sovereignty. That could be the basis for a deal, “said a senior EU source, echoing von der Leyen’s earlier statement.
In London, a spokesman for the Johnson government noted that after 47 years of close economic integration, Britain was ready to stand down and fend for itself. The representative added that the current EU proposal was unacceptable.
“The prime minister will do his best in this process, but he says very clearly: any agreement must be fair, it must respect the fundamental position that the UK will be a sovereign state in three weeks,” the source said.
Wrong relationship?
Previously, the British government said that it had imagined all the possible scenarios for possible problems after December 31 and that “no one has to worry about our food, medicine or [kitų] vital supply chains ”.
Johnson said Friday that it was “very, very likely” that the talks would fail. EU officials also spoke pessimistically, but Frost and Barnier spoke until Sunday night, before Sunday’s deadline.
As negotiations continued in Brussels, some British Conservative MPs asked Mr Johnson for assurances that a navy would be deployed to defend British waters.
But the influential conservative Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee, wrote in French on Twitter that the whole process posed a “real danger” that Franco-British relations would be hampered.
Tobias Ellwood, a former British Army captain who currently heads the House of Commons special defense committee, said British enemies would rejoice in the fighting in the English Channel.
“We are faced with the prospect that our already congested Royal Navy will collide with a close NATO ally over fishing rights,” he told the BBC.
“We need to build alliances, not dismantle them,” Ellwood said.
Bureaucracy at the borders
WTO terms will mean tariffs and quotas, higher prices for businesses and consumers, and the return of border controls that haven’t been in place for decades. This is likely to create queues of cars on the roads leading to South East England seaports as red tape will take longer to import and export.
Transport companies also warn that imports to EU member Ireland could fall if new customs procedures are implemented for goods traveling through Britain.
“We want to plan for the future, but there are many unknowns,” said Martin Reid, director of the Road Haulage Association.
Congestion at the East England container port of Portstown and elsewhere has already sparked fears of delays in shipments to shops, businesses and industries.
But the British government said the congestion was mainly due to a sharp increase in global demand for goods and the impact of the pandemic on freight transport.
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