[ad_1]
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told Sky News that Sunday will be a “point of finality” for the Brexit trade talks if the EU does not “make substantial progress” in the negotiations.
Prime Minister Boris johnson Wednesday night shared a three hour dinner with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen hoping to break months of stagnation.
Although the two leaders ordered their main negotiators to resume talks over the next few days, they both agreed that trade talks remain “very difficult” and that there are still “big differences between the two sides.”
Lord frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, has stayed in Brussels after dinner on Wednesday to continue talks with his EU counterpart, Michel barnier.
The prime minister visited Brussels on Wednesday evening
Johnson and von der Leyen said a “firm decision” on the talks should be made on Sunday.
And Mr Raab suggested to Sky News that the UK government was now treating as a strict deadline, to decide whether a free trade agreement is still possible.
“I think we see it as a point where we need some finality,” he said.
“I am a bit reluctant to say never, never can say never in these EU negotiations.
“Of course, it depends on whether the EU is moving. If the EU is moving substantially and we are actually just tapping a few Is’s or crossing a few Ts, it could be different.
“But I think without movement in the two or three crucial areas that I have described, I think it will be a point of finality.
“And that’s certainly the way the British side is approaching it.”
Raab said the government would “probably” need a yes or no answer on whether a trade deal is possible by Sunday.
But he warned that the UK would not back down on so-called level playing field provisions or on fishing, the two most contentious issues, for the next four days.
“We will leave no stone unturned, we would like a free trade agreement with the EU,” added the foreign secretary.
“But we are not going to sacrifice the basic points of the democratic principle on fishing or on the control of our laws when we leave the transition period.
“I think it is important that it is recognized by the EU and, if they do, I think there is still room for an agreement.”
Use the Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
PM meets Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels
Before his trip to Brussels on Wednesday, the prime minister had told MPs that the EU wanted the “automatic right” to punish the UK in the future, if it does not comply with new EU laws.
He also suggested that the EU wanted to maintain control of fishing rights in UK waters beyond the end of the Brexi transition period on December 31.
Mr Raab asked Brussels to recognize “two basic points of principle that no other country in the world would accept when dealing with the EU or anyone else as an independent state.”
He said: “The concept that the UK would leave the transition period as an independent coastal state but without control of our fisheries – that is something that no country in the world has accepted, or is in the position of: why would it the United Kingdom?
“Similarly, when we leave, we should be in control of our laws.
“We will accept the kind of requirements in the EU’s own free trade agreements, whether in South Korea or Canada.
“What we are not going to do is allow the EU, in an undemocratic way, to control our laws in this country.”
Ireland’s European Commissioner Mairead McGuinness said Thursday that she believes “there is a deal to be made” with the UK.
“I hope we all get a Christmas present over the weekend, an early one,” he told RTE Radio.
“And that there is a trade agreement, because I believe that from all our sides … that would be the best possible result.”
