Brexit negotiators reach the drafts of the historic trade agreement

Follow-up of Brexit negotiations in the EU and the UK with agreement in mind

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.

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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.

Read more: Isolated Britain seeks to reopen trade route after days of chaos

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.

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