Brexit broken record: Trade deal close but big issues remain

LONDON (AP) — Much like a broken record, Brexit trade talks are rumored to be poised for success on the cusp of a deadline, only to face the same old fundamental differences on fishing rights, legal oversight and fair competition that have dogged the European Union and Britain for months.

It was no different on Thursday when EU officials said that the remaining differences couldn't be bridged in “a matter of hours" despite swirling excitement that a decisive breakthrough was imminent.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney urged EU negotiators holed up with their U.K. counterparts in London on a diet of legal texts and takeout pizza: Let's “hold our nerve," he said.

“If we do that, there’s a good chance that we can get a deal across the line in the next few days,” Coveney said.

In Brussels though, some EU delegations are already thinking about ignoring the super-stringent Jan. 1 deadline that the UK imposed on the talks, and simply negotiate through it for weeks to come if need.

Any fallout of chaos on borders and in trade could simply be blamed on the British, who insisted on a 11-month timeframe since officially leaving the EU on Jan. 31, instead of the half dozen years such talks traditionally take.

“If it doesn't work out for Jan. 1, that doesn't mean that it won't work for Jan. 15, or April 1 or July 1. What it does mean is that it would create a huge mess, but that would be totally blamed on London," a diplomat from an EU nation said on condition of anonymity because the talks were in a critical stage.

Though the U.K. left the EU on Jan. 31, it remains within the bloc’s tariff-free single market and customs union until the end of this year. A trade deal by then would ensure there are no tariffs and quotas on trade in goods between the two sides,...