BREAKING: U.K., E.U. Leaders to Meet Face-To-Face to Try to Seal Brexit Trade Deal

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) -British and E.U. leaders will meet face-to-face to try to seal a post-Brexit trade deal after failing again to narrow their differences on Monday, increasing the chance of a disorderly parting of ways at the end of the month.

With just over three weeks before Britain completes its journey out of the bloc, a senior U.K. government source said there was “every chance we are not going to get there” and EU officials said, if anything, negotiations had gone backwards.

Since Britain left the European Union in January, the two sides have been stuck over three issues, raising the prospect of what many businesses say is their nightmare scenario - no agreement to govern around $1 trillion in annual trade.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the timing of which has yet to be confirmed, in what some say will be a last roll of the dice to secure a trade deal.

But he is not expected to time his trip to coincide with an E.U. summit on Thursday and Friday.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said negotiators face a Wednesday deadline, ahead of the summit, to prevent a “no-deal” scenario when the U..K leaves the E.U.’s orbit on Dec 31, which would hit both sides’ economies and compound the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Reprinted from Reuters. The copyright is reserved by the original author.