Brexit gets one more shot after UK PM’s call with EU

Bloomberg

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to give
talks on a post-Brexit trade deal one more shot after speaking by phone on Sunday, a sign that they may be able to salvage an accord after days of pessimism.
In a joint statement issued following their conversation, they said that “despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations” they would “go the extra mile.”
Their remarks came despite a disastrous dinner on Wednesday night, after which they both said a deal looked unlikely and set an end-of-weekend to decide whether to call off nine months of negotiations. On Sunday, they said their call was “useful,” but made no reference to the probability of reaching an agreement.
UK and European Union officials will now remain in Brussels, where they have been locked in talks for the past week, and will try to forge a deal over the next few days. It isn’t out of the question they will reach one by the middle of the week, people on both sides said. Negotiations between the two teams broke up, with officials expressing a renewed sense of optimism, while warning that important questions still remain unanswered.
“We discussed the major unresolved topics,” Johnson and von der Leyen said in their joint statement. “We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached.”
The negotiations have been hamstrung by disagreements over two key issues: what access EU fishing boats will have to UK waters and how to ensure a level competitive playing field for businesses — in particular whether the UK will have to abide by any future changes in the bloc’s environmental, social, or labor standards. Britain has so far resisted that on grounds of sovereignty.
If an accord isn’t reached by the end of the year, businesses and consumers will be hit by additional costs and disruption as tariffs and quotas are imposed on trade with the UK’s biggest and closest commercial partner.