EU's Barnier: We are still far away in negotiations with UK

In the past few weeks, the United Kingdom (UK) has not shown readiness to find solutions in talks with the European Union, EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Thursday.

Key takeaways

"Any international agreement implies constraints on both parties."

"We are still far away in negotiations with the UK."

Some progress made this week but there is no progress on the level playing field."

"We have to agree on a balanced long-term solution for fisheries."

"UK didn't show the willingness to break the deadlock  on level playing field and fisheries."

"We made no progress at all on state-aid."

"We have no visibility on the UK intention on its future domestic subsidy control system, time for answers is quickly running out."

"We want to trade with the UK free from tariffs, quotas and unfair competition."

"EU cannot accept to foot the bill for the UK's political choices."

"The UK is asking for near-total exclusion of the EU fishing vessels from the UK waters, that is simply unacceptable."

Market reaction

The British pound seems to be having a difficult time finding demand against its rivals following these comments. As of writing, the GBP/USD pair was down 0.2% on the day at 1.2707.