EU, UK Poised to Announce Post-Brexit Trade Deal

By Staff, Agencies

The United Kingdom [UK] and the European Union [EU] were expected to announce a Christmas Eve trade deal Thursday after 10 months of Brexit talks dragged out over yet another late-night session.

The two sides hoped to unveil the accord on Wednesday, and the front pages of several newspapers already proclaimed victory for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

But EU member states had a number of questions about the text and cross-Channel diplomacy continued through the night, with Johnson and Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen expected to announce a breakthrough shortly after dawn.

An EU source told AFP that "if all goes well" the two leaders should talk by phone in the morning to seal the deal, however this appeared to get pushed back due to last minute haggling over fishing quotas.

"There is a fight over the numbers, and that is a bad sign," one European source said, while another added that "negotiations are still not finished".

The last-minute delays came after European officials had confidently told journalists on Wednesday afternoon: "We are in the final phase."

Diplomatic sources said member states, in particular France, had pressed the Commission to go back to the British camp to seek specific guarantees on parts of the accord.

The British pound and Asian markets were rising on the expectation of a deal, and a French government source said UK negotiators had made "huge concessions" on fisheries -- the key sticking point as the clock ticks down to Britain's departure.

The deal, if it is confirmed, would come just days before Britain is set to leave the EU's single market at the end of the year, sparing the two sides from trade tariffs.

An agreement -- which would still need to be translated and tidied up by lawyers -- could be approved provisionally before the cut-off date and then scrutinized by EU lawmakers in the new year to avoid a cliff edge.

Britain formally left the EU in January, nearly four years after a referendum on membership that split the nation but has had been in a transition period since then.