EU's Barnier: Significant differences remain in areas of essential interest for EU

Following the latest round of trade talks with the UK, "nobody should underestimate the practical, economic and social consequences of a no-deal Brexit scenario," European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Thursday, per Reuters.

Additional takeaways

"The UK has not engaged in a reciprocal way on fundamental EU principles and interests."

"Significant differences remain in areas of essential interest for the EU."

"The UK is refusing to include indispensable guarantees of fair competition in our future agreement while requesting free access to our market."

"The UK's new approach to subsidy control falls significantly short."

"Still missing important guarantees from the UK on non-regression from social, environmental, labour and climate standards."

"The UK has not engaged on other major issues including dispute settlement mechanisms, safeguards for judicial cooperation and law enforcement, fisheries."

"The EU is intensifying preparedness work to be ready for all scenarios on 1 January 2021."

Market reaction

The GBP/USD pair remains under heavy bearish pressure on Thursday and was last seen losing 1.25% on the day at 1.2840.