EU trade chief claims Boris Johnson has secret plan to make sure UK leave on December 31
AN EU trade chief has claimed there is no real sign Britain wants post-Brexit trade talks with the Brussels bloc to work.
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European Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said the UK appears set to blame any post-Brexit fallout on the economic shock from the coronavirus crisis. The tortuous talks, now focused on setting new trading terms from 2021 when London's status-quo transition period after Brexit ends, quickly hit an impasse when they resumed last month.
The Brussels bureaucrat told Irish national broadcaster RTE the EU and UK were making "slow progress".
He said: "Despite the urgency and enormity of the negotiating challenge, I am afraid we are only making very slow progress in the Brexit negotiations.
"There is no real sign that our British friends are approaching the negotiations with a plan to succeed. I hope I am wrong, but I don't think so."
"I think that the United Kingdom politicians and government have certainly decided that COVID is going to be blamed for all the fallout from Brexit and my perception of it is they don't want to drag the negotiations out into 2021 because they can effectively blame COVID for everything."
The two sides are entering a crucial phase of talks, with two rounds scheduled before the end of June, at which point Britain could seek a one or two year extension, a prospect Prime Minister Boris Johnson has strongly ruled out.
Mr Hogan, a former Irish government minister, said he hoped to see a step change in the negotiations next week and that if that happened, there was no reason why quick progress could be made.
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He said June talks would be very important.
He warned that if not the combination of the disruption from both the coronavirus economic shutdown and Brexit will be "an almighty blow" for the British economy this year, which could spill over to other countries as well such as Ireland.
It comes after the trade boss warned the US would refuse to strike a trade deal with the UK until it has agreed its post-Brexit terms with the EU.
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He said June talks would be very important.
He warned that if not the combination of the disruption from both the coronavirus economic shutdown and Brexit will be "an almighty blow" for the British economy this year, which could spill over to other countries as well such as Ireland.
It comes after the trade boss warned the US would refuse to strike a trade deal with the UK until it has agreed its post-Brexit terms with the EU.
He claimed the United States and South Korea would not sign a trade deal with the UK before a post-Brexit pact with Brussels is complete.
Mr Hogan said: “All of the partners, I think, have indicated – including South Korea – that they will wait to see the outcome of the Brexit negotiations before they come to any conclusion about their bilateral agreement.