British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the UK needs to prepare for no deal - but talks are probably not done yet.
Johnson had set October 15 as the date for the United Kingdom to reach a trade agreement with the European Union, but both sides are still at an impasse over their future relationship. Members of both parties acknowledged they should step up preparations for the possibility that no agreement will be reached ahead of the actual deadline, which is the end of the year.
Even though Brexit talks are not totally dead, they're definitely entering a much more precarious phase. There has been progress in some areas, but both sides remain mired on the major sticking points (state aid and the level playing field, governance, fisheries, sharing data on security and crime fighting, trade in goods and services, and financial services).
Time is really running short: any agreement needs to be reached by the end of October, so that the European Parliament has time to review and approve this brand new relationship. While the probability of a last-minute fudge can't entirely be ruled out, that only seems likely if there's real movement on the major issues in this future relationship.
One firm estimated a no-deal Brexit plus Covid-19 could cost the UK economy $174 billion per year over the course of the next decade, and Johnson is trying to file all economic disruption under the category of Covid-19 rather than Brexit and his hoping that nobody notices. Both the UK and the EU want to avoid this no-deal scenario, but as more and more self-imposed deadlines pass, the real one is getting closer - without any clear sign of compromise.
Article: https://www.vox.com/2020/10/16/21519127/brexit-boris-johnson-no-deal-eu-negotiations
Jan Mueller
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