Dilip Kuner
BORIS Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet in Brussels in the coming days in a last ditch effort to keep trade deal talks open.
The duo held a 40 minute call to discuss the differences between the EU and UK that need to be ironed out before an agreement can be reached.
They issued a joint statement after this afternoon’s conversation. In it they said: “We agreed that the conditions for finalising an agreement are not there due to the remaining significant differences on three critical issues: level playing field, governance and fisheries.
“We asked our Chief Negotiators and their teams to prepare an overview of the remaining differences to be discussed in a physical meeting in Brussels in the coming days.”
This is most likely to happen before an EU summit which is scheduled for the end of the week.
The UK left the EU on 31 January, but remains under its trading rules until the end of the year. If no agreement is reached on trading conditions by then, than the UK and Eu nations will automatically use WTO rules on tariffs.
