BRUSSELS (AP) – Deep in a pivotal weekend of negotiations, a fishing rights breakthrough remained elusive for the European Union and Britain, leaving both without a trade deal that would be the brink of a chaotic, costly economic hiatus on New Year’s Day. to fade.
With hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake across the economy, the small fishing industry continued to drive a wedge between the 27-country bloc and the UK, highlighting the hostility that drove them to a Brexit divorce over the past four years. Britain left the bloc in January, but an 11-month economic transition period ends on December 31.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said on Sunday that the EU “continues to make demands that are incompatible with our independence. We cannot accept a deal that does not put us in control of our own laws or waters. ”
The almost mythical sense of Britain’s right to rule its waves was a vital part of what propelled Brexiteers to victory in the 2016 referendum. Johnson is trying to ensure that as much of Britain’s shared waters as possible are now alone. are returned to British ships.
The EU has always maintained that those waters have been shared for decades, if not centuries, and insists that if too many fishing rights are taken away, it will punish Britain by imposing hefty import tariffs on the mainland market, which is essential for the British seafood industry.
The deadlock has made the overall talks inconclusive as companies on both sides are clamoring for a deal that would save tens of billions in costs. Johnson was unable to give in, however.
“We have to close every deal properly and be based on conditions that respect what the British people have voted for,” his agency said.
The EU parliament is due to approve a deal before the end of the year and had set a deadline for Sunday evening so that it could superficially review the deal and approve it before New Year’s Day. However, negotiators seemed unimpressed by yet another deadline, when so many had already been missed during the four-year departure process.
An EU coastal state official said the EU refused to deliver more than a quarter of the fishing quotas the bloc is in danger of losing now that Britain regains full control of its waters as a result of Brexit. Britain is also determined that a transition period of three years would be long enough for EU fishermen to adapt to the new rules, while the EU wants at least six years.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were still ongoing.
Failure to reach an agreement after Brexit would lead to more chaos at the UK’s borders with the EU in early 2021, as new tariffs add to other trade barriers from both sides. Talks in recent days have stalled on two major issues: EU access to UK fishing waters and ensuring fair competition between businesses.
A trade agreement would ensure that there are no tariffs and quotas for trade in goods between the two sides, but there would still be technical costs, partly related to customs controls and non-tariff barriers to services.
While both sides would suffer economically from the lack of a trade deal, most economists think the UK economy would take a bigger hit, at least in the short term, as it relies relatively more on trade with the EU than the other way around.
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Jill Lawless contributed from London.
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