Brexit: Britain and EU 'will rip each other apart' in trade talks – The Guardian

While depending upon the comments from French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, The Guardian came out with the Brexit-negative news on Sunday. The French diplomat is cited turning down the hopes of a Brexit deal between the UK and the EU while speaking at the Munich Security Forum.

Key quotes

French foreign minister says it will be hard for the UK to strike a deal by end of the year given differences

‘I think on trade issues and the mechanism for future relations, which we are going to start on, we are going to rip each other apart.’

He added that on his desk in his office he had massive files showing the issues of contention between the UK and France, including over fishing rights. 

'Let us hope that it is done as quickly as possible even if there are many subjects and that we have substantial points to manage,' said Le Drian. 'I have one in particular (...) which is the question of fish'.

FX implications

The news joins the weekend headlines from The Telegraph, suggesting the UK to refuse to abide by EU rules on tax and workers' rights while flashing a negative signal for the British pound. With this, the GBP/USD pair trades mildly weaker to 1.3040 by the press time of early Monday morning in Asia.