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Post-Brexit trade talks between the UK and the EU could be delayed beyond tonight’s deadline, the foreign secretary suggested.
Speaking to Sophy Ridge from Sky News on Sunday, Dominic raab He said “I can’t close the door” on that possibility, but admitted that “there is still a long way to go” before a deal is possible.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will make another phone call with me Commission President Ursula von der Leyen later today around lunchtime.
Companies still don’t know what rules they will operate next month
Both sides have said that today is when leaders will decide to hold or abandon trade talks.
Raab suggested that negotiations could continue as the clock ticks to December 31, when the transition period ends.
Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Von der Leyen will speak by phone today
“If we are 99% on pending issues, you don’t want to leave a stone unturned, but I think it’s a pretty high bar,” he said.
Raab, who said earlier this week that Sunday would be a “point of finality”He added that it is now reaching the “eleventh hour”, so what must happen is “to move the political stalemate.”
“That can only happen at the political level of the Prime Minister and Commissioner Von der Leyen,” he explained.
But Arancha González Laya, Spain’s foreign minister, said she had “difficulty understanding” why Britain is refusing to accept the EU’s demands on fisheries.
The Spanish foreign minister said that the non-agreement should be avoided ‘at all costs’
“Failure to reach an agreement under the current circumstances would be extremely negative for our economies,” he told Sky News.
“The UK will suffer even more than the EU. We will both suffer, more on the UK’s side, which I think is something we should try to avoid at all costs.”
Sir Ivan Rogers, Britain’s former ambassador to the EU, said he thought it unlikely that today would be the time for a deal or no deal.
Labor Shadow Communities Secretary Steve Reed also said people voted in last year’s general election to “get Brexi done “because” they had had enough of four and a half years going round and round in circles.
He added: “They want this to end; they want confidence and assurance that we can move our country forward.
“A no-deal Brexit would simply cause negotiations to restart next month, only Britain would be in a much weaker position.
“So Boris Johnson needs to do what he told the country a year ago that he was ready to do and end Brexit.”
