Britain’s top minister overseeing Brexit talks said on Friday he was confident a free trade deal would be clinched with the European Union as there had been a distinct change of tone from the bloc in recent weeks allowing progress to be made.
The United Kingdom left the EU on January 31 but the main terms of its membership remain in place - including being in the EU customs union and single market - during a transition period until the end of this year, during which time both sides hope to negotiate a new free trade accord. “I’m confident that there will be a deal, I think there has been a welcome change in tone over the last few weeks,” Michael Gove told reporters.
While Britain has always said it believed a deal was possible, the tenor of the comments from Gove - one of the most senior Brexit supporters in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government - was distinctly more positive than in recent months. Failure to reach a deal would convulse global trade just as the world comes to terms with the economic destruction sown by the novel coronavirus.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2020.
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