EU Mulls Retaliation for U.K. in Brexit Showdown

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

The Brexit deal is less than two years old, and the EU and the U.K. are trading threats to end it. With the EU planning contingencies if Boris Johnson’s government pulls out of the pact governing trade with Northern Ireland, we’re told one option is that Brussels could weigh terminating the whole post-Brexit trade agreement. Such a decision would require the backing of all 27 EU governments and would lead to a cooling-off period before tariffs, quotas and other barriers to trade kick in. Despite such threats, substantive negotiations have been quietly taking place and a European Commission team will travel to London tomorrow. On a parallel track, France will decide over the coming days on possible actions if its fishermen don’t get access to U.K. waters in accordance with Brexit.