BRUSSELS – European Union and British negotiators worked through the night and right into Christmas Eve to put the finishing touches on a trade deal that should avert a chaotic economic break between the two sides on New Year’s Day.
After resolving the remaining fair-competition and fisheries issues on Wednesday, negotiators combed through hundreds of pages of legal text that should become the provisional deal for a post-Brexit relationship after nine months of talks.Sources on both sides said the long and difficult negotiations were on the cusp of being wrapped up as negotiators, holed up at EU headquarters in Brussels with a stack of pizzas, worked to deliver the text to their leaders at dawn on Thursday.