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| - British and European Union negotiators resumed coronavirus-affected Brexit talks on Monday, bidding to bridge "fundamental" differences with time running ever shorter to avert major cross-Channel disruption. In-person talks were suspended last week after one of the EU team tested positive for Covid-19, in an ill-timed blip ahead of Britain's looming exit from a post-EU transition period. After technical discussions over the weekend, formal negotiations resumed online between the teams led by British diplomat David Frost and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier. "Time is short," Barnier warned in a tweet. "Fundamental divergences still remain but we are continuing to work hard for a deal." Britain left the EU on January 31 but an 11-month transition period to allow for both sides to carve out a new relationship ends on December 31. The talks are already deep into extra time, with any pact needing debate and ratification by the European Parliament by the end of the year. The negotiations have been deadlocked on three key fronts: fisheries, a "level playing field" to ensure fair competition after Brexit, and oversight of any deal. "I think we're making progress in the talks and I remain hopeful that we can reach resolution," UK finance minister Rishi Sunak told BBC television on Sunday, as he readies cost-cutting measures to help pay for a splurge of pandemic spending. "I think the most important impact on our economy next year is not going to be from that (Brexit), it's because of coronavirus," he said, adding that Britain "should not be going for a deal at any price". Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists that Britain will "prosper" without a deal, if need be, even with the kind of quotas and tariffs that have been absent from cross-Channel trade for decades. If a deal is secured, he will have to sell it to restive Conservative MPs, many of whom will baulk at any brakes on UK freedoms imposed by the EU as the price of agreement. jit/phz/bmm
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