Talks for a trade agreement between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) in the post-Brexit era are reportedly stalling or showing little progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two sides need to agree on fundamental principles first before negotiations can move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe only have a few weeks left, and we should not waste them,\u201d said the top EU negotiator Michel Barnier, as quoted by MarketWatch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy its current refusal to commit to conditions of open and fair competition and to a balanced agreement on fisheries, the UK makes a trade agreement, at this point, unlikely,\u2019\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Top British negotiator David Frost said that \u201cconsiderable gaps remain in the most difficult areas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have always been clear that our principles in these areas are not simple negotiating positions but expressions of the reality that we will be a fully independent country at the end of the transition period.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, the BBC quoted an unnamed senior UK official negotiator who said, “I can quite see how we could make a breakthrough relatively quickly if they adjust their position.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The British official reportedly believe the talks are close to either a breakthrough or breakdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It truly seems as if each side is waiting for the other one to make a move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two sides are trying to reach a trade agreement before the end of the year, and the UK has reportedly ruled out extending the December deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The recent talks came as the second official negotiation round, since the COVID-19 crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The main points of disagreement are agreeing on fair and balanced trade rules, regulating fisheries, the rules for futures agreements, and, of course, the borders with Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Germany said it is committed to reaching a new partnership agreement between the EU and the UK but the EU should prepare for a no-deal Brexit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel recently told the European bloc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merkel then reiterated her previous remarks that talks saw little progress, adding that the EU has agreed with Britain to speed up talks in the coming period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is worth noting that Germany assumed a six-month presidency of the EU on 1 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the British Minister of Trade, Liz Truss, said on Thursday that the UK government has never publicly set a timeline for a trade deal with the United States, Reuters reported, citing remarks by the minister to the House of Lords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This comes as it now seems more unlikely that London and Washington will agree on a trade deal before the end of 2020, as previously expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the contrary, Truss revealed that there has been very good progress in trade talks with the US.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talks for a trade agreement between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) in the post-Brexit era are reportedly stalling or showing little progress. The two sides need to agree on fundamental principles first before negotiations can move forward. \u201cWe only have a few weeks left, and we should not waste them,\u201d said …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":31846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[6865,6992,6835,6842],"class_list":["post-31845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-economic-reports","tag-brexit","tag-european-union","tag-uk","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31854,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31845\/revisions\/31854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/noortrends.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}