LONDON (UK) – Britain’s The Times reported that senior officials in the office of Prime Minister Boris Johnson foresee only a 30%-40% chance that there will be a Brexit trade deal with the EU because of a deadlock over state aid regulations.
The UK quit the EU on Jan. 31 and discussions have so far not made much headway on a new trade agreement by the time a status-quo transition arrangement comes to an end in December.
The newspaper reported that the UK wishes to utilise state aid to ramp up its technology sector and top ministers in the Johnson cabinet are not willing to compromise on that aspect.
“Inside No 10, they now think there is only a 30 to 40 per cent chance that there will be an agreement,” James Forsyth, political editor of The Spectator, wrote in a column. “The sticking point isn’t fish — I’m told that there is a ‘deal to be done’ there — but state aid.”
Britain wants the percentage of fish quotas kept apart for UK vessels in British waters to be increased from 25 per cent to more than 50, said the newspaper.