France will not indiscriminately sign a post-Brexit deal on Dec. 31 -minister

France would not sign a bad post-Brexit deal with the United Kingdom on Dec. 31 just for the sake of agreeing one to meet a deadline, said French European Affairs Minister Amelie de Montchalin on Wednesday. "We must not cede to the pressures of a timetable," Montchalin told a hearing of the French Senate.

Britain left the EU in January with an 11-month, business-as-usual transition period, and will need to agree on new trading terms from January 2021 to avoid potential disruption to commerce.