we have to roughly stay aligned. 0k, david henig, good to speak to you.ing us on bbc news. thousands of lorry drivers are spending christmas day in their cabs near dover. an extra 800 military personnel are being deployed to help clear the backlog of lorries waiting to cross the channel. our correspondent is in doverfor us this morning and i caught up with her earlier. for many of us, this isn't the christmas we hoped we would have, sat at home, but spare a thought for a lot of these drivers who have been stuck, some of them forfour nights who have been stuck, some of them for four nights here, who have been stuck, some of them forfour nights here, queueing to try to get on the ferries going across the channel to france. if you look behind me you will be able to see we have movement! some of these lorries are moving, they are slowly but surely being loaded onto ferries this morning to make their way across the channel. now ports that have been working through christmas, throughout the night, —— port staff. to try to get this moving, all of these lorries t

former trade negotiator david henig, there.what do we know now on the detail? we haven't seen the deal itself so we can't comment too much on the detail but we know compromises have been made. 0ne too much on the detail but we know compromises have been made. one of the key —— one of the key compromises is over fisheries. the key —— one of the key compromises is overfisheries. it looks as though the end position is closer to what the eu was asking for than what the uk was asking for. but, nevertheless, the uk will be bringing back its share of fishing that can be taken out of uk waters so that the eu will be conceding something, they are. we know there has been compromised on a level playing field. that is ensuring that, if uk regulations diverged from eu regulations for example on environmental standards or taxation or state aid, that comes with some kind of consequence, to prevent either side from undercutting the other. we know that there have been compromises there. there have been compromises there. there have been comprom

let's speak to david henig, uk director at the european centre for international political economy andde negotiator. just talk to us about what will be going through the minds of the negotiators at the moment. so little time left and it seems still so much to try to achieve an agreement on. much to do yet many building blocks will be in place one way or another. there will be pieces of paper around, if the prime minister chooses to go with a deal. there will be pieces of paper saying, here are the things we can do. it is not that far away. it is waiting on the big decision. we have been told co nsta ntly big decision. we have been told constantly that 97%, 98% of a trade deal has been agreed, already in the bag. it is the last details, absolutely correct. even in the last detail they will be drafts around. if the rumours are correct, there area number of if the rumours are correct, there are a number of rumours around that the uk has made a bit of movement on the uk has made a bit of movement on the level playing field. if that is the level playing field. if that is the case, it that h

david henig is a former uk trade negotiator and the uk director of the european centre for internationalmy. iain watson was saying that a no—deal exit would have cost gdp, but even this brexit, which in the old terms between soft and hard, looks like a hard brexit, has been forecast to cost the uk economically. that's right. there will be new barriers to trade between the uk and eu. the deal doesn't prevent those. we are expecting talks to continue into the new year. it will not be anything like a seamless trading relationship. but it is certainly going to be better than no deal, and it lays the framework down for further cooperation between the uk and eu, so it is significant the prime minister has decided to go for this deal. if you look at the whole framing of the last 4.5 years, we are ina framing of the last 4.5 years, we are in a very tight, close, relationship. the vote, ultimately, didn't hinge on fish. a lot of the other issues were about the idea of sovereignty, immigration. where do we stand now on those key issues that people perhaps thought they we re that people perhaps tho

let's speak to david henig, uk director at the european centre for international political economy andde negotiator. thank you for talking to us. if you we re thank you for talking to us. if you were sitting in lord frost‘s chair right now, or even michel barnier‘s chair right now, would you feel there was any purpose to what you would do? well, it also depends on what kind of decisions have been made by the leaders whether i have any further scope to move. i think both sides do still desperately want to deal. i don't think we would be talking at all if we didn't want to deal, but they have reached stalemate, so i guess it is going through the subjects again, seeing whether there is any pathology that all in different ways that perhaps haven't been gone through yet, that is what we know, neither side wants to walk away yet, and that should at least give us a little bit of hope, still, that they could be a deal. this isn't a definite no deal situation. because a lot of people are looking at the practical aspects of this and saying, hang on a minute, we have heard from emmanuel macron as

david henig is the uk director for the european centre for international political economy, a think tank you see happening if there is no agreement in the next few weeks. essentially no agreement will mean tariffs. and tariffs have been steadily reducing globally for many yea rs. steadily reducing globally for many years. they are hardly a factor at all except in food and drinks it would be very unusual for tariffs to be coming back between the uk in the eu and very high once potentially for be present on some foodstuffs and to present on cars. that will be the main part and the other part would be there is no real set of rules a bove would be there is no real set of rules above the wto to suit the huge trade between the uk in that eu, which is around £2 billion a day. so this is a huge trade float, second largest in the world. in terms of what the eu is asking for, this level of integration and in exchange for access and single market, are there any other equivalents around there any other equivalents around the world that you can think of? your report mentioned the us demands with rega

i can discuss this further with david henig, who‘s the uk director of the european centre for internationalritical in so far the failure of these talks? yes, i think it is. fishing is always going to be difficult because there is only a finite number of fish and their athletes from the uk and european countries who want access to it, but it has always been fairly clear that the uk fleet would get greater access in the future. we can see solutions in that. a level playing field is such a fundamental divide, and even more so, the uk government, the way it is speaking is not suggesting any room for compromise, nor the eu, is not suggesting any room for compromise, northe eu, so that is the concern, whereas we know with regard to fish that they have been compromise options drawn up. we have heard of review clauses and time periods. we have heard very little similar for the level playing field. and sunday, we are told, is the final deadline. the foreign secretary seemed to leave a little bit of wiggle room this morning. do you think that final deadline is looming this weekend? no, it is very muc