PARIS: French
President Emmanuel Macron told Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday that
there was not enough time to wholly rewrite Britain's Brexit divorce deal
before an Oct 31 deadline. Johnson met Macron at the Elysee Palace a day after
talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who challenged Britain to
come up with alternatives to the agreed safety net provision for the UK-Irish
land border.

More than three
years after the United Kingdom voted to quit the European Union, it is still
unclear on what terms - or indeed whether - the bloc's second largest economy
will leave the club it joined in 1973. Macron left the door open to Britain
seeking a solution to the Irish "backstop", but said any alternative
must respect both the integrity of the EU single market and stability on the
divided island of Ireland. "I want to be very clear: in the month ahead,
we will not find a new withdrawal agreement that deviates far from the original,"
Macron said after a warm handshake with the British premier.

However, the
British pound, sensitive to the prospect of a 'no-deal' exit, jumped more than
half a cent after Merkel said she had not set Johnson a 30-day deadline to
propose a solution to the border issue, and that it could be achieved by Oct
31. On his first trip abroad since entering 10 Downing Street a month ago,
Johnson has warned Merkel and Macron that they face a potentially disorderly
no-deal Brexit on Oct 31 unless the EU does a new deal.

'Let's get Brexit
done'

Johnson told
Macron that he believed it was still possible to agree one in time for the Oct.
31 deadline, and that he had been "powerfully encouraged" by what he
had heard from Merkel on Wednesday. "Let's get Brexit done, let's get it
done sensibly and pragmatically and in the interests of both sides and let's
not wait until October 31," Johnson said. "Let's get on now in
deepening and intensifying the friendship and partnership between us."

Johnson, an
ardent Brexiteer, is betting that the threat of 'no-deal' Brexit turmoil will
convince Merkel and Macron that the EU should do a last-minute deal to suit his
demands. He has repeated promises to leave on Oct. 31 - with or without a deal.
Macron insisted Britain's destiny lay in Johnson's hands alone. He said the EU
did not want a 'no-deal' scenario, but would be ready if it happened. The
political crisis in London over Brexit has left allies and investors puzzled by
a country that for decades seemed a confident pillar of Western economic and
political stability.

Many investors
say a 'no-deal' Brexit would hurt the economies of Britain the EU and the wider
world, roil financial markets and weaken London's position as the pre-eminent
international financial centre. Macron said that any new solution to the
problem of the Irish border had to be found in the next month. Signaling that
the ball was in the UK's court, he said: "If we cannot find alternatives,
then it will be because of a deeper problem, a political one, a British
political problem. "And for that, negotiations can't help. It will be up
to the prime minister to make that choice, it won't be up to us."

Irish border

After Brexit, the
frontier between Ireland and the UK province of Northern Ireland will be the
only land border between the EU and Britain. The EU wants to ensure that it
does not become a back door for goods to enter the EU's single market - which
guarantees free movement of goods, capital, services and labor.

Ireland for its
part says checks could undermine the 1998 Good Friday agreement, which brought
peace to Northern Ireland after more than 3,600 died in a three-decade conflict
between unionists who wanted the province to remain British and Irish
nationalists who want it to join a united Ireland ruled from Dublin. The
backstop, negotiated by Johnson's predecessor Theresa May, provides for Britain
to remain in a temporary customs union with the EU after Brexit, avoiding the
need for any 'hard' border infrastructure, until a better solution is found.

But Johnson said
in Paris: "Under no circumstances will the UK government be instituting,
imposing, checks or controls of any kind at that border. We think there are
ways of protecting the integrity of the single market and allowing the UK to
exit from the EU." Brexit supporters acknowledge that there may be
short-term disruption from a 'no-deal' exit but say the UK will thrive if cut
free from what they cast as a doomed experiment in integration that has led
Europe to fall behind China and the United States.- Reuters