UK and EU leaders instruct the team to restart negotiations on future relations
Xinhua News Agency, London, December 5 (Reporter Wang Huihui and Jinjing) British Prime Minister Johnson and European Commission President Von Delane had a phone call on the 5th and said that they had instructed the teams of both sides to restart negotiations on future relations with a trade agreement as the core on the 6th.
However, it is impossible to reach a trade agreement if the three core differences of level playing field, contract performance management and fishery cannot be resolved.
Data map: British Prime Minister Johnson.
Johnson and Von Delane talked on the phone on the same day and issued a joint statement.
The statement said that the two sides welcomed the progress made in the negotiations in many areas, but there are still major differences on the three key issues of a level playing field, performance management and fisheries.
The two sides emphasized that if these issues are not resolved, it is impossible to reach an agreement.
The statement said that while recognizing the seriousness of the differences, both sides agreed that the negotiating team should make further efforts to assess whether these differences can be resolved.
"Therefore, we instructed the chief negotiator to resume negotiations in Brussels tomorrow."
According to the statement, Johnson and Von Delane will talk on the phone again on the evening of the 7th.
In late November, because a member of the EU negotiating team was infected with the new crown virus, the two sides suspended face-to-face negotiations and moved to online.
On November 28, the two sides resumed face-to-face negotiations in London and continued to compete on the three core issues of fisheries, a level playing field and contract performance management.
After a week of intense negotiations, the United Kingdom and the European Union announced on December 4 that they had suspended future relations negotiations because they did not yet have the conditions to reach an agreement.
Britain officially "Brexit" on January 31 this year, and then entered an 11-month transition period.
If the UK and Europe fail to reach a trade agreement during the transition period, the trade between the two sides will return to the WTO framework from 2021 and re-implement border inspections and tariffs.