European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier in the UK Sunday Times on the talks with the UK over trade conditions.
- "Clearly we want an agreement, but that cannot be an agreement at any cost"
- "We will not accept - never accept - anything that makes the single market more fragile"
The background to the talks are the UK is set to leave the EU single market & customs union with no trade deal in place if agreement is not reached by the end of the year.
Barnier says Boris Johnson must keep his promises already made:
"We need to remember together the commitments that we entered into together"
He added that throughout the Brexit process, the UK has attempted to "cherry pick" aspects of EU membership without accepting the corresponding obligations.
Barnier said not a lot of progress has been made, but "even if it is difficult, I do believe an agreement is possible."
UK Times is gated, here is the link if you can access it.
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Don't freak out too much about this. Experience shows that these sort of negotiations are difficult and protracted and that they do tend to go down to the wire as each side seeks the best deal it can get. Anyone here old enough to remember the US-China trade talks? The two finally cobbled together an agreement, albeit a thin one.
While the US is a touch weaker (admittedly mixed) early here in Asia GBP/USD is donw a few points.
