Brexit, Future Relations: Crunchtime

Sky News writes tonight that trade talks are stalling before the 30 June deadline for extending the transition period – but will there yet be a breakthrough?

As the crowds waving Union Jack flags massed in Parliament Square on the night of January 31 – and the countdown clock projected onto the façade of 10 Downing Street marked the moment when Britain left the EU – it seemed the terms of our exit would dominate this year.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared: “This is the moment when the dawn breaks and the curtain goes up on a new act in our great national drama.”

The plot then, of course, took an unpredictable turn.

That same day, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the first two COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the UK and, within weeks, the entire government machine in the UK and other European countries would be absorbed, as never before, on controlling the pandemic.

The end of this month is the deadline – written into law via the Withdrawal Agreement Act that Mr Johnson’s government triumphantly passed at the start of this year – to extend the transition period.

Currently the UK remains in the EU’s single market trading arrangements, accepting free movement of people and the bloc’s laws until 31 December, by which time the government aims to negotiate a trade deal.

We can extend that transition period for up to one or two years; but have to agree it this month.

There seems almost no chance of that, as the prime minister has repeatedly insisted – and has indeed passed legislation to guarantee – that the UK does not delay.

His ministers are increasingly bullish on this.

Cabinet Office minister Penny Mordaunt told a fellow Conservative MP in the House of Commons on Tuesday that he was “damn right” that extending would “serve no useful purpose” and was a “crazy” idea.

And yet talks on the new trade deal have made little progress so far, according to both sides.

To read the entire article, click here: Brexit: This month is a crucial moment if the UK and EU are to agree a trade deal

Source: SkyNews