Analyst reviews last leg of Brexit trade talks

A senior fellow from the UK's Institute for Government said Thursday that continued Brexit negotiations between Britian and the EU may be "an exercise in deep futility."

Jill Rutter commented that unless ministers have more "more room to manoeuvre, it's difficult to see why anything should be different from the position that we had last weekend or indeed earlier this week in Brussels."

Britain's foreign minister said Thursday that negotiations on a trade deal with the European Union will reach a "moment of finality" this weekend, with both sides assessing chances of an agreement as slim.

To prepare for a possible no-deal exit on Jan. 1, the EU on Thursday proposed four contingency measures to make sure air and road traffic can continue as smoothly as possible for the next six months.

It also proposes that fishermen will still have access to each others waters for up to a  year, to limit the commercial damage of a no-deal split.

The plans depend on the U.K. offering similar initiatives.

U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the Sunday deadline set by Britain and the EU for a decision was final — though he added "you can never say never entirely."

Without a deal, the bloc and Britain face a tumultuous no-deal split at the end of the month, threatening hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions in losses.

Britain left the EU on Jan. 31, but remains in its economic structures until the end of the year.

That means a serious economic rupture on Jan. 1 that could be chaotic if there is no trade agreement.

A no-deal split would bring tariffs and other barriers that would hurt both sides, although most economists think the British economy would take a greater hit because the U.K. does almost half of its trade with the bloc.

"I think down the line, both sides may regret not trying to think more constructively about what a really good, healthy relationship for an exit UK and the EU might look like," Rutter said.