The EU says any breach of the Brexit treaty could sink trade talks,propel the United Kingdom towards a messy exit when it fully departs on December 31,and thus complicate the Northern Irish border,the country's only land frontier with the EU.
The EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told the bloc's 27 national envoys on Wednesday that he was still optimistic,three diplomatic sources told Reuters.
"Barnier still believes a deal is possible though the next days are key,"said one of the EU sources.
Johnson toldThe Sun newspaper that the EU must not be allowed to abuse Britain and risk four decades of partnership.
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He said the United Kingdom must"ring-fence"the Brexit deal"to put in watertight bulkheads that will stop friends and partners making abusive or extreme interpretations of the provisions". He used the example of a potential EU demand for tariffs on food going to Northern Ireland from Britain.
Societe Generale analysts said on Thursday they now see an 80 per cent chance that Britain and the EU will fail to strike a trade deal before the end of the year.
The Bank of England,which on Thursday kept interest rates unchanged,said market contacts had"reported renewed concerns over recent Brexit developments".
France warned against collapsing Brexit trade talks -- a step it said could suit some in London.
"We shouldn't fall into the trap,"said Clement Beaune,France's European affairs minister.
The intervention by Biden,who nationwide polls show leading the race for November 3's US election,prompted a sharp rebuke from an ex-leader of Johnson's Conservative Party,Iain Duncan Smith,who advised him to focus on"riots"rather than Brexit.
"We don't need lectures on the Northern Ireland peace deal from Mr Biden,"Duncan Smith toldThe Times."If I were him I would worry more about the need for a peace deal in the USA to stop the killing and rioting before lecturing other sovereign nations."
Biden,who has talked about the importance of his Irish heritage,retweeted a letter from Eliot Engel,chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives,to Johnson exhorting him to honour the Good Friday deal.
Engel urged Johnson to"abandon any and all legally questionable and unfair efforts to flout the Northern Ireland protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement"so as to preserve peace in the province and good US-British relations.
Reuters
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