UK, EU failed to reach either comprehensive or interim post-Brexit deal, says David Frost

UK Brexit negotiator David Frost on Friday expressed disappointment over the inconclusive post-Brexit agreement between Britain and the EU as they yet again postponed their talks into the New Year. One year after the Brexit trade deal was supposed to end acrimony between the two sides, the relationship between the EU and the UK continues to remain tainted due to their deep-seated differences. Now, on Friday, while the 27-nation bloc was counting on some positive feedback for what it saw as a breakthrough proposal to regulate medicine trade in Northern Ireland, it got a lukewarm response from Britain.

In a 13-point statement rife with complaints about perceived EU foot-dragging, ill will and sleight-of-hand in Northern Ireland, David Frost concluded by saying, “It is disappointing that it has not been possible to reach either a comprehensive or worthwhile interim agreement this year.” 

In response, his EU counterpart, Commission President Maros Sefcovic, shot back saying that “if the UK would reciprocate our efforts, our energy and our ambition we bring to these discussions we could be much more advanced by now.”

Tensions over post-Brexit deal 

It is to mention that the so-called trade war between the two sides has only escalated since the negotiations last year slipped deep past countless deadlines and into Christmas eve before an awkward compromise. Making the matters worse, France has additionally announced that they will seek EU legal action against Britain over a months-long unresolved fishing dispute. In recent months, the fishing industry has also become a centre stage in relations between London and Paris. 

The UK is also insisting that the EU cedes final legal oversight by its top court of any disputes on Northern Ireland trade. Northern Ireland is Britain territory, however, it has remained a part of the EU’s borderless trading market for goods when the UK left the bloc last year, causing practical problems for businesses over which side is in charge of what. While the UK has agreed on a withdrawal deal, the compromise on Northern Ireland has proved unwieldy and impractical. 

The EU has complained that it was the government of UK PM Boris Johnson that agreed to the specific deal it now objects to. Sefcovic has said that the deal doesn’t create trust and doesn’t make the negotiations easier. Instead, the EU had put forward a series of proposals to smooth trade between Britain and NI, but Frost shot them down on Friday saying that it does not solve problems. 

“Although we have worked with the proposals put forward by the Commission in mid-October, they do not solve the problems, and even in some aspects take us back from the current unsatisfactory status quo,” Frost wrote.

(With inputs from AP)