UK trade minister Liam Fox speaking on ITV a short while ago 22 Oct
- Britain would offer the other 27 EU members "further assurance" on its divorce before the next summit in December to push talks forward to a discussion of a future trading relationship
- EU should not believe that Britain was bluffing by saying it was preparing for a no deal, describing trading according to World Trade Organization rules as "not exactly a nightmare scenario" but I would prefer to have a deal
"I don't know what that number is but it's very clear that we could only have that final number as part of a final agreement, we would want to know what the end state is.
"Away from the hyperbole around the divorce bill there is actually a great deal of cooperation going on between us."
The comments come after the EU summit that finished on Friday with seemingly some better level of good will as I reported here but with Macron less cordial and stating:
- not even completed half the work on Brexit financial settlement yet
- at no point did May bring up no deal scenario
- it is for Barnier to put a figure on settlement amount but it's significant
I repeat once again. If the UK says financial settlement can only be sorted at the end, and the EU says it needs to be sorted now then how are they going to move to phase 2 in December even if May does concede to pay more ?
Enough of this malarkey for today. I'm heading out again so enjoy the rest of your week-end and we'll see later if Asia markets have anything of note to say about Yellen's speech late on Friday.
