UK and EU set to kick off negotiations for speedy trade deal
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was set to receive the President of the European Commission on Wednesday in London to begin negotiations for a post Brexit trade deal with the European Union.
With Britain on course to exit the trading bloc in under a month on the next 31 January, both sides were keen to start the talks which were set to continue throughout the transition period until the end of 2020.
Disagreement over Brexit trade talks will likely come to a head at the meeting with the new president of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen.
The former German defence minister will give a speech, entitled Old Friends, New Beginnings, at her former university, the London School of Economics before meeting the PM.
According to the Guardian, sources close the President said she will try to convince Johnson of the wisdom of extending the deadline in order to broker an agreement.
Parliament has already passed legislation to force trade talks with the European Union to extend no further than December and von der Leyen said that 11 months is an “extremely challenging” time frame in which to try and secure a deal.
“The meeting is really to discuss holistically the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union and to look forward to the year ahead in all of its dimensions,” a spokesperson for the Commission said Monday.
“We do not want to do this negotiation in public, that is for sure,” one senior EU official said.
Some policymakers have warned that trade talks might be more complex than the divorce negotiations that took place from 2017 to late 2019.
Negotiators will also have to reach agreements on security and data sharing; aviation standards; supplies of electricity and regulation of medicines.