Britain and EU face "challenging areas" to secure trade deal - UK's chief negotiator

Britain and the European Union must tackle several challenging areas to secure a trade deal, the UK's chief negotiator David Frost said on Thursday after the latest round of talks on a future relationship. “We have been consistently clear from the start of this process about the basis on which agreement is possible between us.

Britain and the European Union must tackle several challenging areas to secure a trade deal, the UK's chief negotiator David Frost said on Thursday after the latest round of talks on a future relationship. "A number of challenging areas remain and the divergences on some are still significant," he said after an eighth full round of negotiations on a new partnership with the EU in London.

Frost said the UK government was committed to working hard to reach agreement by the middle of October. "We have been consistently clear from the start of this process about the basis on which agreement is possible between us. Those fundamentals remain," he said, adding that both sides have agreed to meet again in Brussels next week.