BRUSSELS – Negotiations for a post-Brexit trade deal were deadlocked and threatened by failure today, as both sides dug in their heels over access to the United Kingdom’s rich fishing waters.
The European Parliament had fixed today as the last moment it could accept a text of any accord if members of the European Parliament are to ratify it before Britain leaves the European Union single market in two weeks.
But both sides of the intense negotiations here now expect the talks to blow past what is only the latest in a series of missed deadlines, and both insist that the other must back down over fish.
Without a deal, Britain’s participation in the European project will end with a new cross-Channel tariff barrier to sharpen the shock of unravelling a half-century of ever deeper political and economic partnership.
“We’re continuing to try every possible path to an agreement, but without a substantial shift from the (European) Commission we will be leaving on World Trade Organisation terms on December 31,” a British government source said.
But a European diplomat said Brussels had made its best offer and it was down now to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson – now distracted by a worsening coronavirus crisis at home – to decide whether he wants a deal.
“It could well continue over Christmas, now the UK is still making up its mind whether it is willing to pay the price for unprecedented access to the internal market.
“The EU has been clear this weekend that it is willing to compromise on fish. But it will bail at putting EU fishermen structurally out of business. The narrow path to a deal has now become a single goat track, about to peter out.”
The tough talk came as negotiators scramble to secure a pact before December 31. No deal will risk chaos at EU and UK borders, where a pre-deadline rush of freight trucks has already caused long tailbacks.
Britain intends to assume control over its waters on January 1, but is ready to allow continued access to EU fishing fleets for a transitional period under new terms.
UK negotiator David Frost wants Britain to take back more than half the fish currently assigned under the EU quota system, under a three-year agreement.
The European side insists the UK cannot have tariff-free access to the EU single market as a whole unless it agrees to take back only a quarter of the fish quota – and that the transitional period will last seven years. – AFP, December 20, 2020
