No sign Britain wants trade talks to succeed, says EU trade chief

Dublin

THERE is no real sign that Britain is approaching trade talks with the European Union with a plan to succeed and it appears set to blame any post-Brexit fallout on the economic shock from Covid-19, the EU's trade chief said on Thursday.

The tortuous talks, now focused on setting new trading terms from 2021 when London's status-quo transition period after Brexit ends, quickly hit an impasse when they resumed last month, according to EU diplomats and officials.

"Despite the urgency and enormity of the negotiating challenge, I am afraid we are only making very slow progress in the Brexit negotiations," European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan told Irish national broadcaster RTE.

"There is no real sign that our British friends are approaching the negotiations with a plan to succeed. I hope I am wrong, but I don't think so," he said.

"I think that the United Kingdom politicians and government have certainly decided that Covid-19 is going to be blamed for all the fallout from Brexit and my perception of it is they don't want to drag the negotiations out into 2021 because they can effectively blame Covid-19 for everything."

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The two sides are entering a crucial phase of talks, with two rounds scheduled before the end of June, at which point Britain could seek a one or two year extension, a prospect it has strongly ruled out.

Mr Hogan, a former Irish government minister, said he hoped to see a step change in the negotiations next week and that if that happened, there was no reason why quick progress could be made.

The June talks would be very important, he added.

If not, he warned that the combination of the disruption from both the coronavirus economic shutdown and Brexit will be "an almighty blow" for the British economy this year, and spill over to other countries as well such as Ireland. REUTERS