Name: Brexit trade talks “on a knife edge” with time running out - BBC News
Uploaded: 2020-12-07T18:47:18.000Z
Duration: 8 min 17 s
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negotiators for the UK and the EU have spent the day in last ditch talks to try to secure a post Brexit trade deal.

Transition words & phrases

The head of the U K team, Lord Frost, said they were working very hard to reach an accord, although Ireland's prime minister said that things were on a knife edge.

The UK left the you at the beginning of the year, but the two sides have been talking for months now to try to agree a new trading relationship, which is due to start on January the first Tonight You Sources and Downing Street are making different claims on signs of progress over fishing rights.

More on that in a moment to other main issues.

Competition rules and how a deal would be enforced remain unresolved, political correspondent Chris Mason reports.

K s chief negotiator, Lord Frost, arriving for what's described on the British side as the last roll of the dice in trade talks with the U.

We worked very hard to try and get a deal.

We're going to see what happens in negotiations today.

Way will be looking forward to meeting our European colleagues later on this afternoon.

There is frustration in government at what is seen as the EU's failure to understand the importance of the U.

We want to be doing a free trade agreement is a sovereign equal with the European Union, and so anything that undermines our ability to control our own waters, for instance, or undermines our ability to make our own laws isn't something we can accept.

EU sources suggest agreement could be near on fishing rights in the U.

Government source said there have been no such breakthrough on the issue of fair competition on how any agreement is enforced remain sticking points.

As Lord Frost arrived at the European Commission, he was reminded that the friend share worried about not being able to catch us.

Many fish Lord Cross, What's your message to Emmanuel Macron and supporters of the French government will tell anyone who listen.

They'll say no to a deal they don't like.

This is the framing of the relationship between the U.

K and the U for years, decades to come, and so we have to be absolutely convinced on both sides of the channel that is the right framing for this relationship, and if it is not, we shouldn't sign it.

If there is a deal, parliament will be asked to endorse it.

That's likely to be a formality, given Boris Johnson's sizeable majority.

But labor are divided about what to do they regard.

No deal is a disaster, but can't agree whether it would be wise to endorse any deal the government does.

We'll have to look, of course, at the content of a deal, but also any legislation that comes upon, we're not going to give them a blank check.

But I think I have been very clear both today and on previous programs with you, Andrew, that the most important thing is that the government get a deal on tonight.

On that big question, the likelihood of a deal.

A big player in the drama of Brexit, the Irish prime minister, said.

This my gut instinct is that it's 50 50 right now on.

I don't think one can be overly optimistic about the resolution emerging.

And so there is still plenty to discuss in Brussels, after the roused the anger and the bitterness of the last 4.5 years since the EU referendum.

Another crucial moment of decision beckons.

So the talks on a knife edge, says the Irish prime minister.

And re so we have the two sides on the issue of fish, seemingly not being able to agree on what they agree on.

Meanwhile, tomorrow worth keeping an eye here on Parliament, the return of the internal market bill.

A bit of legislation that could mean the UK breaches the last agreement it made with Brussels at just the point.

It's trying to negotiate the next one on on the trade deal.

Both sides still want to do a deal if they can, and compromise has a habit of turning up fashionably late at negotiations.

But it may not turn up at all and, in that instance, would be looking at a no deal.

Chris, Thank you, our political correspondent Chris Mason.

There Well, as Chris was saying, there have been conflicting accounts over the past few days about where progress has or hasn't been made.

But the main sticking points have been known for months.

Our reality check correspondent Chris Morris looks at the main issues.

And while fishing maybe a tiny part of the economy on both sides of the channel, it's a huge political importance.

It was central to the take back control message in the 2016 referendum.

What's at stake now is access to these UK waters, where U boats currently catch about £600 million worth of fish every year.

So it's about the UK share of fishing quotas, not just where you can fish, but how much you can catch.

There's also the timeline for measures coming into full force.

The U wants the status quo period of up to 10 years.

The UK says it should be much shorter than that.

The other main area of disagreement is the level playing field rules on fair competition for billions of pounds of business now and in the future, the two sides of trying to agree a common baseline on workers rights on the environmental regulations that companies have to follow.

If you cut regulations, it can be cheaper to make stuff on the U is worried.

Then there's state aid or government subsidies for business.

The UK is determined to assert its sovereignty, and it's refusing to follow you rules.

But the EU says it has to protect companies within its single market.

So the third main area of disagreement how you enforce a deal on resolve any disputes.

The EU is demanding the right to retaliate if the UK breaks the rules in one area by hitting back in another imposing tariffs or taxes, for example where it thinks they might hurt the most.

Then there's the question of who adjudicates any disputes on the potential role of the European Court of Justice.

But in this final push for a deal, it's worth emphasizing that even if an agreement is reached, there are big changes coming.

New bureaucracy checks and paperwork for traders and travelers crossing the border from January.

The first, a deal would remove some of them, including crucially tariffs on goods.

But outside the single market and the customs union.

Things will be very different choice now a pretty hard form of Brexit or no deal at all.

Catch your Adler, who's in Brussels for us?

There is claim and counter claim tonight about progress on fishing.

Look, I am hearing from some in the U that the negotiators who have bean hard at work in the European Commission building that you see just there behind me are nearing a deal on fish.

This has Bean strongly denied in the UK Now that is confusing, Rita.

But this kind of mixed messaging at five to midnight on a deal like this, with so much at stake, isn't exactly uncommon.

What I'm also hearing is that on the two other outstanding issues we heard about their increases report, the two sides are still very far apart.

So the you really does want to tie the UK to some kind of agreed fair competition principles, as it calls it, in exchange for good access to its single market.

But the UK says after Brexit it wants sovereignty.

It wants to be free to be able to make up its own rules and regulations on because there's little mutual trust that you is then saying okay, what we need to find a good way to enforce our agreement there to make sure that both sides as stick to the rules or otherwise face pretty tough consequences.

All of these issues will make or break this deal.

Rita, we have another day of negotiations ahead of us on then.

Another call between the prime minister and the president off the European Commission.

Also a fondle Ian to see where we are by then.

 Many thanks Kati Radler there in Brussels. 