Brexit Trade Talks Difficult As EU And UK Still Split On Key Issues

• Britain and the European Union remained divided over competition and fishing on Wednesday as they tried to clinch a Brexit trade deal in time to avoid a turbulent split at the end of the year.
• Ireland said a deal was still possible before Britain leaves the EU's orbit on Dec. 31, 11 months after it formally quit the bloc and entered a transition period keeping it in the bloc's customs union and single market until the year ends.
• But with a dizzying array of conflicting signals coming from the two sides, Britain has not yet managed to agree on a deal that would ease the pain of its departure by keeping in place zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the single market.
• Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said the gap on how much fish EU boats could catch in British waters was still wide, but that he believed there should be a deal given the economic shock that failure would trigger.

(Source: Reuters)