UK, EU head for supper showdown over Brexit trade deal

BRUSSELS (AP) — Leaders of Britain and the European Union will meet Wednesday for a dinner that could pave the way to a post-Brexit trade deal — or tip the two sides toward a chaotic economic rupture at the end of the month.

Early-morning comments from both sides insisting that it was for the other to compromise only highlighted the difficult task ahead for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Within just a few hours they would need to unstick negotiations that are deadlocked on key aspects of the future relationship.

British officials said they hoped political pressure from the top could break the logjam, but room was limited.

“Unless we see some movement on the EU side, then it will be very difficult,” U.K. Cabinet minister Michael Gove told Times Radio.

The bloc insists the U.K. needs to move to secure agreement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said “there is still the chance of an agreement,” but stressed that the EU would not compromise on its core principles.

Merkel told the German parliament that the bloc would "take a path without an … agreement if there are conditions from the British side that we can’t accept.”

The U.K. left the EU on Jan. 31 after 47 years of membership, but remains within the bloc’s tariff-free single market and customs union until the end of the year. Reaching a trade deal by then would ensure there are no tariffs or quotas on trade in goods on Jan. 1, although there would still be new costs and red tape for businesses.

Failure to secure a trade deal would mean 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.

Months of trade...