The United Kingdom told the European Union on Friday that it had to give ground or there would be no Brexit free-trade deal by the end of the year. “We made very little progress towards agreement on the most significant outstanding issues between us,” UK chief negotiator David Frost said.
Frost explained that “the major obstacle” to a deal was the EU’s insistence on including a set of novel and unbalanced proposals on the “level playing field” that would bind the UK to EU law or standards, Reuters said.
“As soon as the EU recognizes that we will not conclude an agreement on that basis, we will be able to make progress,” Frost said.
The EU continues to insist on fisheries arrangements and access to UK fishing waters “in a way that is incompatible with our future status as an independent coastal state,” Frost noted.