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| - Brussels and London have both published their negotiating positions for post-Brexit trade talks, teeing up months of high-pressure haggling to get a deal. They technically have until the end of the year, when a transition period expires, but Britain says that if there is no clear progress by June, it could walk away. Here are some of the expected flashpoints in the upcoming talks, with the danger of economic chaos if the two sides cannot swiftly come to agreement. This is the key stumbling block. Europe wants any agreement to include "robust commitments" to uphold standards on employment, the environment, climate change and competition, including state aid. This insistence on a so-called "level playing field" is to stop Britain gaining what Brussels sees as an unfair competitive advantage by relaxing rules. Under the mandate approved for EU negotiator Michel Barnier, an agreement should "uphold common high standards... with Union standards as a reference point". But Britain says the whole point of Brexit was to go its own way, and its mandate says: "We will not agree to any obligations for our laws to be aligned with the EU's." Instead it proposes "reciprocal commitments not to weaken or reduce the level of protection afforded" by labour and environmental laws, "in order to encourage trade or investment". It says these must not be subject to dispute settlement mechanisms. Barnier has identified fishing as one of the EU's top two priorities, along with the level playing field. The topic is urgent for certain countries, notably France, where fish and seafood caught in UK waters account 30 percent of sales for fishermen. The EU mandate says any trade deal "should aim to avoid economic dislocation" for EU fishermen by upholding "existing reciprocal access conditions, quota shares and the traditional activity of the Union fleet". This clashes with Johnson's pledge to reclaim "full control" of British fishing waters. The British negotiating mandate rejects the "outdated" existing mechanism for sharing fishing quotas, and says access should be negotiated annually "based on the best available science for shared stocks". EU fleets operating in British waters must comply with British rules as Britain becomes an "independent coastal state" from December 31. Access to European markets is a bargaining chip for Brussels because of the importance of the financial sector to the British economy. City of London firms will lose "passporting" rights to operate automatically in the bloc. Instead they will have to be granted "equivalence" -- and the EU's negotiating terms say it will decide on this on a "unilateral basis". Britain wants to resolve this by June. When it comes to the level playing field, the EU is especially demanding on state aid provisions, saying its rules must apply "to and in the United Kingdom". Brussels wants London -- in cooperation with the EU commission -- to set up an independent authority in the UK that would ensure that European anti-subsidy laws are enforced in Britain. Britain rejects this, and proposes instead to set up its own state aid rules. The European Court of Justice, the EU's highest court, became a hated symbol of EU over-reach for Brexiteers over the course of Britain's 47-year membership of the bloc. The EU's negotiation mandate vastly reduces the role of the court, proposing that an independent arbitration panel be set up to rule on the majority of disputes. But the ECJ will still have a role when a dispute requires a ruling on a matter of EU law, as the Luxembourg court is the highest authority on the subject. London says there will be "no role" for the court in resolving disputes, and says the new deal should be governed by arrangements "appropriate to a relationship of sovereign equals". bur-pdw/ar/zak/gd
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