UK could strike Brexit trade deal this week if EU ‘doesn’t move the goalposts’
THE UK could strike a Brexit trade deal this week if the EU “doesn’t move the goalposts”.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab admits fishing rights are “still a bone of contention” but he is confident of an agreement.
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The UK and EU need to seal an arrangement by Saturday to have time to get it through their respective parliaments by the end of the year.
It is understood Boris Johnson is lining up a call with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen after she put pressure on her negotiator Michel Barnier to get it tied up.
Mr Barnier was holding face-to-face discussions last night with British negotiator Lord David Frost in London.
Before the talks, Mr Barnier said: “Work continues, even on a Sunday.”
Mr Raab said of the EU: “If they show the pragmatism, the goodwill and good faith that has surrounded the last leg of the talks, and certainly we have shown our flexibility, I think there is a deal to be done.”
Sources have said negotiators can see a path through the sticking points on fisheries as well as implementing a level playing field for firms as the UK officially leaves the bloc on December 31.
MUTUAL INTEREST
Mr Raab, below, added: “We want to adopt the same precedents that the EU has with other third countries.
“I think there is a landing zone if the EU is as reasonable as the UK has been.”
On fisheries, he said the EU needs to accept that “it’s a fact of leaving the EU that we take back sovereignty and control over our coast.
"As a coastal state, we’ve got to be able to control of our own waters and our own fisheries.”
But he was optimistic, adding: “The mutual interest in a deal is very strong.”
Labour wants to absorb the terms of the agreement before deciding whether to support it.
Shadow transport secretary Jim McMahon said: “We do want to see a deal, but until we see the construct of one, we cannot confirm our support for it.”
The Government, meanwhile, has set out moves to reduce subsidies for farmers from next year, with European cash replaced by payments to protect the environment.
The Sun Says
A TRADE deal with the EU could be done by the end of this week, an upbeat Mr Raab said yesterday.
How many times have we heard that, only for the EU to carry on insisting the UK should still dance to its tune?
An agreement may be close but so is the end of the transition period and we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility there may not be a deal if the EU fails to be realistic.
No Deal would be bad news for both sides, but we would survive it, and probably better than the EU. Surrendering our sovereignty is not an option.
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The changes to agricultural policy are seen as the most significant reforms to farming and land management for England in more than half a century.
A roadmap details how “direct payments” for the amount of land farmed, will start to be reduced from next year on the way to being phased out by 2028.
The Government has vowed to keep the £2.4billion per year subsidy for farming over this parliament.
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