Brexit Talks Reach Critical Juncture as Boris Johnson Meets EU Leaders

Boris Johnson will meet EU leaders for dinner in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the final stages of post-Brexit trade talks, with the negotiations hanging in the balance. The talks come as British officials and EU officials continue to disagree on several key issues, including the level playing field and the enforcement of environmental and labor standards. Meanwhile, British businesses are becoming increasingly alarmed as the deadline for a trade deal looms.

Key Takeaways:

• The talks will focus on the outstanding issues of fisheries, the level playing field, and the enforcement of environmental and labor standards.
• The EU has proposed an "evolution mechanism" to ensure that both sides can react to any large gap in ambition between the EU and UK's environmental or labor standards.
• The UK has resisted the EU's demands for either side to be able to punish the other if it violates its commitments, calling it "disproportionate" and "unpredictable."
• The two sides are also at loggerheads over attempts by Brussels to exclude EU-level spending from joint commitments on state aid.
• British businesses are becoming increasingly alarmed as the deadline for a trade deal looms, with many still lacking sufficient information to prepare for UK-EU border controls.
• The British Chambers of Commerce has said that businesses still have insufficient official information available in 24 critical areas, which has undermined their ability to prepare for 1 January.
• Businesses have been panic-stricken due to the lack of information, and some have warned that a no-deal Brexit would have devastating consequences for their trade.

Statistics:

• The Office for Budget Responsibility estimated that there would be a 2 per cent hit to the British economy next year if no trade deal was signed, equivalent to £40bn.
• Businesses still have insufficient official information available in 24 critical areas, undermining their ability to prepare for UK-EU border controls.
• 40 per cent tariffs would be imposed on UK exports to the EU, with agriculture and fisheries being especially hard hit.
• EU duties on UK scallops would be 20 per cent, for example, and 15 per cent on sausages.

Sources:

• Boris Johnson warned that a no-deal Brexit would represent "a failure of statecraft for which we would all be responsible" (Source: FT, no date).
• Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, will meet Boris Johnson for dinner on Wednesday to discuss the final stages of post-Brexit trade talks (Source: FT, no date).
• Detlef Seif, chief Brexit spokesman of Angela Merkel's CDU party, said that "It's certainly true that France is more affected by the fisheries issue than Germany, so obviously they have a different view" (Source: FT, no date).
• Katja Leikert, chief CDU spokeswoman on Europe, said that "We have to show the UK the red card whenever they try to bilateralise the talks" (Source: FT, no date).
• James Sibley, head of international affairs of the Federation of Small Businesses, said that it was "deeply concerning that, more than four years on from the referendum, small firms still have so little clarity around what our trading relationship with the EU will look like when the transition period ends in 25 days' time" (Source: FT, no date).