UK, EU mull how to break deadlock following threats

Britain and the European Union held fresh meetings yesterday to try to unlock their Brexit impasse after London threatened to walk out and go its own way next year despite warnings of further damage to the Covid-hit economy. 

The UK government launched an information campaign advising businesses that "time is running out" to be ready for a complex new trading chapter with a post-Brexit transition period expiring at the end of this year, deal or no deal.

But industry groups continue to warn of potential chaos for road hauliers and the possibility of drugs shortages, as vital preparations remain in the early stages ahead of Britain unwinding nearly five decades of European integration.

Senior minister Michael Gove said Sunday the door remained "ajar" for an overarching trade deal to remove much of the uncertainty if the EU shifts position, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson declaring last week he was ready to abandon talks.

Gove met European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic in London yesterday morning to discuss the two sides' existing divorce treaty, which Britain has threatened to redraw through a new internal market bill to regulate post-Brexit trade within the UK.

The contentious law has passed Britain's House of Commons and was due later yesterday to come up for debate in the upper chamber, the House of Lords.

The two sides disagree on state subsidies, how rules on fair competition will be policed and how much access EU fishing fleets will get to UK waters.

Failure to strike a deal would see Britain and Europe revert to World Trade Organization terms, with tariffs and quotas for businesses, potentially devastating for economies already weakened by the pandemic.