UK, EU hold Brexit trade talks by video amid virus outbreak

European Union and Britain said Wednesday y h held “constructive” talks on ir future relationship despite coronavirus pandemic scuttling face-to-face negotiations. But two sides remain far apart on wher a deal can be sealed by end of year.

Chief negotiators Michel Barnier, for EU, and David Frost for U.K. met by video conference to set dates for furr week-long rounds of talks in late April, mid-May and early June.

two sides said in a joint statement that goal was “to make real, tangible progress” by June, when a high-level summit is scheduled to decide wher re is a chance of success by end of year.

Britain officially left 27-nation bloc on Jan. 31, but remains within EU’s ecomic orbit, including its single market for tre in goods and services, until end of year. two sides have until n to work out a new relationship covering tre, security and a host of or issues.

EU alrey considered that a tight deline — most tre deals take years to negotiate. Under terms of U.K.-EU divorce agreement, transition period can be extended for two more years.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted he would t ask for that extension, before coronavirus pandemic upended life and consumed energies of governments around globe.

Plans for talks in London and Brussels were scrapped and both Barnier and Frost fell sick with COVID-19, though both have recovered.

Both sides see June summit as last opportunity to postpone deline past Dec. 31. EU nations and bloc’s top officials are overwhelmingly against hemming mselves into a tight deline as set by London.

But even as Johnson recovers from a case of COVID-19 that put him in intensive care, U.K. government says it will t ask for more time.

“ government’s policy on this is unchanged, and it’s also written in law that transition period will end on Dec. 31,” Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said Wednesday.

(Photo: AP)