Photographer: Geert Vanden Wijngaert / Bloomberg
Photographer: Geert Vanden Wijngaert / Bloomberg
Negotiators in the UK and the European Union have reached the draft of a post-Brexit trade agreement and are now working on finalizing the agreement after almost ten months of often full deliberations.
The agreement has yet to be approved by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the EU, according to officials with knowledge of the matter. That means the business could fall apart and any announcement could be a few hours away, they said.
The pound rose up 1.6% to $ 1.3571, the biggest intraday gain in more than a week. The yield on 10-year government bonds in the UK was ready for the biggest gain in March.
Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen have spoken in person in recent days, holding several telephone conversations in a last-minute bid to reach an agreement before the UK leaves the single market at the end of the month.
Michel Barnier said at a meeting of ambassadors that progress had been made in the talks.
Photographer: Olivier Hoslet / AFP / Getty Images
If they succeed in concluding an agreement, it would draw a line in almost five years of often stormy negotiations since the UK voted to withdraw from the EU in 2016 and lay the groundwork for the UK to trade and work with the block in the future. Hundreds of back-up trucks around the English port of South Dover earlier this week provided a sober reminder of the potential consequences of ending the UK transition period on 31 December without an agreement.
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Negotiations resumed early Wednesday at the Berlaymont Commission headquarters in Brussels, with discussions focused on what access EU vessels will have to British waters and what rights the EU will have to impose retaliatory tariffs should Britain limit such access in the UK. future.
Both sides have made a fisheries agreement a precondition for any broader agreement on their future relationship, even if € 650 million ($ 790 million) of European fish caught in UK waters in the UK each year it represents a fraction of the € 512 billion in goods traded annually between the UK and the EU.
Michel Barnier, the bloc’s chief negotiator, said on Tuesday at a meeting of ambassadors from the 27 EU member states that progress had been made in talks, and an agreement could be signed before Christmas – if the British are ready to make an additional compromise on fishing, according to diplomats briefed on the talks. Talks could continue beyond Christmas or fail completely, he said in a private meeting.
Senior EU officials said the decision was up to Johnson, while people familiar with the British side said the responsibility was to move Europeans.
Diplomats from the EU working group discussed how a potential agreement could be implemented by 1 January, even if there is not enough time for formal ratification by the EU Parliament. Although such procedural preparations are not in themselves evidence that an agreement has been reached, they signal that the bloc is preparing for one.
If an agreement is reached, the commission will publish the draft informal text and send it to the Member States and the European Parliament, according to an informed diplomat on the preparations. EU government envoys to Brussels will have two days to discuss and approve the project, according to plan. A written procedure will then follow for the signing of the free trade agreement so that it can be published in the Official Journal of the European Union by 31 December.
– With the assistance of Tim Ross
(Add the necessary political approval in the second paragraph.)