Negotiations for a trade agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom have been halted. European negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart David Frost report this on Friday Twitter. According to them, there are still big differences.
Barnier and Frost are going to inform their bosses about the state of the negotiations. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will then meet on Saturday afternoon.
The negotiations have been halted because there is still a great distance between the two sides in the areas of state aid, supervision and fisheries. Those have been the three stumbling blocks for some time now.
The UK has already officially left the EU on January 31, 2020. Since then, there has been a transition period, during which the same rules apply to mutual trade as before the British departure. This transition period ends on December 31.
Before then, the UK and the EU want to reach an agreement on the mutual trade relationship. If that fails, they fall back to the trade rules of the world trade organization WTO. This means that import duties are imposed on many products.
Thursday came further reports that a deal would be imminent. According to British Education Minister Gavin Williamson, an agreement could even be reached this weekend, but after the reports from Frost and Barnier, that seems to have been canceled for the time being.
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