On cusp of Brexit trade deal, EU and UK haggle over fish – By Guy Faulconbridge, Elizabeth Piper, John Chalmers (Reuters) / Dec 23 2020
LONDON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Britain and the European Union were on the cusp of striking a narrow trade deal on Thursday, swerving away from a chaotic finale to a Brexit split that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two.
While a last-minute deal would avoid the most acrimonious ending to the divorce, the United Kingdom is heading for a much more distant relationship with its biggest trade partner than almost anyone expected at the time of the 2016 referendum.
Sources in London and Brussels said a deal was close as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a late-night conference call with his senior ministers, and negotiators in Brussels pored over reams of legal texts.
There was no official confirmation of a deal but Johnson was expected to hold a news conference – just seven days before the UK turns its back on the EU’s single market and customs union at 2300 GMT on Dec. 31.
