Johnson Says U.K. Is Now Preparing for No-Deal: Brexit Update
No Deal #NoDeal
(Bloomberg) —
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he believes a trade deal with the European Union is not likely and the U.K. will now get ready to leave the bloc’s single market and customs union at the end of the year without a new agreement in place.
Johnson kept the door open for further talks but blamed the bloc for refusing to “negotiate seriously” in recent months. He said he would always be willing to hear from the EU side negotiators came back to the U.K. with “a fundamental change of approach.”
Last month, the British leader set a deadline of Oct. 15 for an agreement to be struck — or clearly within sight — saying there would be no point continuing talks beyond this week without adequate progress.
Read more: The Canada, Australia Models for Post-Brexit Trade: QuickTake
Key Developments: Barnier and Frost to talk Friday Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says U.K. “surprised and disappointed” at EU’s attitudeOfficials warn the risk of U.K. walking out has increased due to bad atmosphereGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel says EU also needs to “compromise” to get a deal Chief Negotiators to Hold Talks on Friday (12:27 p.m.)
U.K. chief negotiator David Frost and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier are set to hold further discussions on Friday afternoon, according to a European official with knowledge of the matter.
Johnson Tells EU: ‘Come to Us’ (12:10 p.m.)
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the U.K. will now get ready to split from the EU’s single market and customs union without a new trade agreement, while leaving the door open to more talks. The EU is not serious about giving Britain the kind of deal it wants, “unless there is some fundamental change of approach” from the bloc’s negotiators, Johnson told a television crew.
Asked to clarify if he was calling time on negotiations on a trade deal, Johnson said: “We’re saying to them: come to us.”
“Since we have only ten weeks until the end of the transition period on January 1, I have to make a judgment about the likely outcome and to get us all ready,” Johnson said.
“And given that they have refused to negotiate seriously for much of the last few months, and given that this summit appears explicitly to rule out a Canada-style deal, I have concluded that we should get ready for January 1 with arrangements that are more like Australia’s based on simple principles of global free trade.”
U.K.’s Raab Says Deal Depends on EU (Earlier)
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the U.K. is “disappointed and surprised” that the EU had watered down its commitment to intensifying the trade talks. A deal, he said, “depends on the other side.”
“We have been told that it must be the U.K. that makes all of the compromises in the days ahead,” Raab told Sky News on Friday. “That can’t be right in a negotiation so we are surprised by that, but the prime minister will be saying more on this later today.”
Still, the two sides are “close” to a deal, he said, with only “only two issues — fisheries and the so-called level playing field” left to resolve. “With goodwill on both sides we can get there,” Raab said.
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