, Columnist
Only One Side Compromised for This Brexit Breakthrough
The U.K. bowed to EU demands on all the main issues and will have to keep doing so during trade talks.
One way, uphill, bumpy road ahead.
Photographer: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
After U.K. and EU negotiators reached a deal opening a path for trade negotiations on Friday, arch-Brexiter Michael Gove declared British Prime Minister Theresa May had "won." That is a statement worthy of all the now-debunked Brexit slogans. The parties' agreement shows the EU has given up virtually no ground, and that's what's likely to happen in the trade talks, too.
In plain terms, the 15-page document that closes the first stage of the talks -- according, of course, to a EU-determined sequence -- seals the U.K.'s agreement to three sets of EU demands.