Brussels, Dec 23 (AFP/APP): The European Union and Britain could agree on the terms of a post-Brexit trade deal within hours, European sources said Wednesday, as negotiators sought to hammer out the last details.
“We are in the final phase,” one EU official told AFP.
Asked whether this meant a deal later Wednesday, a source close to the talks said: “Very likely, yes.” The British pound surged against the dollar on optimism that a deal could finally be reached, with sterling rising to $1.35 around 1551 GMT.
The pound also gained against the euro, which stood at 90.16 pence. Diplomats from EU member states, which would have to approve any technical agreement, were less optimistic however, warning that they still needed to see a text and that problems may remain.
But, a definitive breakthrough on ten months of tortuous negotiations seemed close, after EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson took control of the talks.
The last-gasp deal, if it is reached, would come just days before Britain is set to leave the EU’s single market at the end of the year, sparing the two sides from trade tariffs. Any agreement still faces a race to be signed off by the EU’s 27 member states before Britain ends a half-century of economic integration with the continent at midnight on December 31.
A deal — which would still need to be translated and tidied up by lawyers — could be approved provisionally before the cut-off date and then scrutinized by EU lawmakers in the new year to avoid a cliff-edge.
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