UK PM Boris Johnson has set a 'deadline' for the Brexit trade talks of this week, at the EU summit of leaders.
Its a 'deadline' ... in air quotes ... because BJ has left himself a gaping out:
- has said the "shape of a deal" should be visible by the time of this EU Council meeting
Whatever that means. I'm going with its not a deadline at all.
ps. JPM still think a deal is likely, from a note:
- there are no reports that Johnson has threatened to pull out of the talks in discussions he has had with various EU leaders in recent days
- We would expect the Statement accompanying the Council meeting to recognise that some progress has been made in the talks and to encourage negotiators to make a final push to secure agreement as soon as possible.
- With the Council not scheduled to meet until December 10th we would expect an indication that it would be prepared to convene a special meeting before then to give assent to a deal assuming one is reached.
- We continue to think a deal is more likely than not, with about a two-thirds to one-third split of deal/no-deal probabilities.
(bolding mine)
Remember this? Subsequent events showed BJ had an aversion to ditches.
