EU warns of Brexit cliff as British PM rules out longer transition period

Bloomberg

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to stick to a 2020 Brexit transition period revives the risk of the country’s ties to the European Union being severed disruptively, according to the bloc’s chief civil servant for trade policy.
Sabine Weyand, director general for trade in the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, cautioned that Johnson’s intention to prevent any prolongation of the Brexit transition period beyond 2020 would require the bloc to plan accordingly.
“We are well advised to take seriously that the UK does not intend to go for an extension of the transition,” Weyand told a European Policy Centre conference on Tuesday in Brussels. “We need to be prepared for that. And that means that, in the negotiations, we have to look at those issues where failing to reach an agreement by the end of 2020 would lead to another cliff-edge situation.”
The UK is on course to leave the EU by January 31 after Johnson scored an overwhelming victory in national elections last week on a pledge to “get Brexit done.”
UK parliamentary approval of a hard-fought withdrawal agreement between Britain and its 27 EU partners would trigger a transition phase until the end of 2020. During this period, the economic status quo would be maintained while both sides negotiate on their future trade, political, security and other relations.