Britain could walk away from the Brexit talks within weeks, warned British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday and insisted that a no-deal Brexit would be a "good outcome for the U.K.". These comments came just prior to a crucial round of talks between Britain and the European Union on Britain’s divorce from the bloc.
A Brexit deal was only possible if negotiators of the EU are prepared to "rethink their current positions", said Johnson even as talks are currently in a deadlocked.
Britain has been accused by the EU of not negotiating seriously.
Britain officially left the 27-nation EU on January 31, after about three and half years after the country voted on the divorce with a very slender margin of Britons opting to get out of the EU after remaining with it for more than four decades. An 11 month period of transition for the actual setting in of Brexit will end on December 31 after which no benefits of the single market and customs union of the EU will be available to Britain without a free trade agreement.
In case of a no-deal Brexit, trade between the two parties will be carried out according to the rules and regulations and tariff of the World Trade Organization (WTO). That will b a blow to the UK as the EU is its biggest trading partner.
Even if Britain had “a trading arrangement with the EU like Australia's", the country would "prosper mightily", Johnson said.
Negotiators of the two sides - British chief negotiator David Frost and his counterpart Michel Barnier, are slated to hold talks on a possible deal this week itself, which will be the eighth round of talks between the two parties over Brexit.
State aid to industries and the access for European boats to U.K. fishing waters are the two key sticking points in the negotiations. The EU wants to ensure a "level playing field" for competition so that EU’s environmental or workplace standards are not undercut by British firms and the UK government is not able to provide government subsidies for its industries.
The EU has been accused by Britain of imposing certain conditions in the possible agreement that it has not included in its trade agreements with other countries such as in the one with Canada.
Britain was "not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws", Frost told the Mail newspaper on Sunday. "We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things," he said.
In order to allow for its member countries to approve of any deal with Britain as well as legal vetting before prior to the end of the transition period, any deal on Brexit needs to be completed by November, the EU has said.
Saying that an agreement needed to be sealed by an EU summit scheduled for October 15, Johnson cut that deadline even shorter.
"If we can't agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on," he said.
(Source:www.voanews.com)
A Brexit deal was only possible if negotiators of the EU are prepared to "rethink their current positions", said Johnson even as talks are currently in a deadlocked.
Britain has been accused by the EU of not negotiating seriously.
Britain officially left the 27-nation EU on January 31, after about three and half years after the country voted on the divorce with a very slender margin of Britons opting to get out of the EU after remaining with it for more than four decades. An 11 month period of transition for the actual setting in of Brexit will end on December 31 after which no benefits of the single market and customs union of the EU will be available to Britain without a free trade agreement.
In case of a no-deal Brexit, trade between the two parties will be carried out according to the rules and regulations and tariff of the World Trade Organization (WTO). That will b a blow to the UK as the EU is its biggest trading partner.
Even if Britain had “a trading arrangement with the EU like Australia's", the country would "prosper mightily", Johnson said.
Negotiators of the two sides - British chief negotiator David Frost and his counterpart Michel Barnier, are slated to hold talks on a possible deal this week itself, which will be the eighth round of talks between the two parties over Brexit.
State aid to industries and the access for European boats to U.K. fishing waters are the two key sticking points in the negotiations. The EU wants to ensure a "level playing field" for competition so that EU’s environmental or workplace standards are not undercut by British firms and the UK government is not able to provide government subsidies for its industries.
The EU has been accused by Britain of imposing certain conditions in the possible agreement that it has not included in its trade agreements with other countries such as in the one with Canada.
Britain was "not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws", Frost told the Mail newspaper on Sunday. "We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things," he said.
In order to allow for its member countries to approve of any deal with Britain as well as legal vetting before prior to the end of the transition period, any deal on Brexit needs to be completed by November, the EU has said.
Saying that an agreement needed to be sealed by an EU summit scheduled for October 15, Johnson cut that deadline even shorter.
"If we can't agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on," he said.
(Source:www.voanews.com)
