BRUSSELS • European Union and British negotiators held "technical talks" in Brussels yesterday with no sign of them breaking an impasse over post-Brexit fishing rights in time to save a trade deal.
Sources on both sides said fishing is now the main obstacle to any pact that could be in place on Jan 1 to prevent a sudden return to tariffs that would deal an economic jolt to both sides of the Channel.
"It remains very blocked," one EU diplomat told Agence France-Presse.
Another said Brussels had made Britain its last offer on fishing access and it was down now to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to decide whether he wants a deal.
The United Kingdom has suggested this compromise last for three years before it is renegotiated, whereas Europe is holding out for seven.
"It's all down to numbers now," the second European diplomat said.
The EU's point man in the talks, Mr Michel Barnier, has consulted member states that share fishing waters with Britain on the haggling over the issue, the diplomat added.
The European Parliament has highlighted a deadline of midnight today (7am tomorrow, Singapore time) as the last moment to receive a deal for review if EU lawmakers are to ratify it before the end of the year.
Their British parliamentary counterparts are in recess, but can be recalled within 48 hours to do likewise.
But EU capitals are not binding themselves to the European Parliament's deadline.
France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune warned that time left to get a deal was "a matter of hours", echoing words used by Mr Barnier a day earlier.
But, Mr Beaune told French radio, talks will not be called to a halt even if they go past today.
"We won't do that because what is at risk is whole sectors like fishing, like sustainable competition conditions for our businesses."
The urgency of reaching a deal is being driven home by scenes of long lines of lorries at the entrance to the freight rail link that goes through the Channel Tunnel as British companies frantically stockpile goods.
A group of British MPs warned in a report released yesterday that Britain has not yet installed all the complex information technology systems and port infrastructure needed to ensure post-Brexit trade with the EU runs smoothly.
"With just seven working days until the end of the transition period, significant concerns remain," said Mr Hilary Benn, a prominent Labour MP who chairs the cross-party Committee on the Future Relationship with the EU, which put out the report.
Disruption is inevitable whether a deal happens or not.
Outside the single market, British and European traders will have to fill out import-export, health and tax forms to send and receive goods.
A deal would lighten that burden by removing tariffs, but there would still be traffic snarls as checks on lorry loads and drivers' papers are carried out.
Meanwhile, logistics companies, including DB Schenker and DSV Panalpina, have begun chartering planes to keep British factories supplied with components and avoid the expected disruption to road and sea transport.
DB Schenker, owned by rail giant Deutsche Bahn, told Bloomberg that a major German industrial customer has asked it to send parts to and from British production facilities by air from Jan 1.
DSV is separately working to establish a daily air shuttle between mainland Europe and Britain from the start of next year to help customers maintain deliveries.
The firms are among the world's five largest freight forwarders.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, BLOOMBERG
