Brexit Secretary suggests EU withdrawal deal may be done within three weeks

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>Uk Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab has indicated that he expects a deal on Britain’s EU withdrawal to be finalised by November 21&period; Downing Street has so far said only that it is working to conclude a deal &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;as soon as possible”&comma; and hopes to do so during the autumn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But Mr Raab told a cross-party committee of MPs that the end of negotiations&comma; which have stretched on for 19 months&comma; was now &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;firmly in sight”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The October summit of the European Council – long-billed as the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;moment of truth” for Brexit negotiations – passed without a deal&comma; and leaders of the remaining 27 EU countries decided not to schedule a special summit in November unless chief negotiator Michel Barnier told them there had been &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;decisive” progress in talks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But Mr Raab appeared to suggest that he expected a deal within the next three weeks&comma; as he set a date for himself and negotiator Olly Robbins to appear before the House of Commons Exiting the EU Committee&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I would be happy to give evidence to the committee when a deal is finished and currently expect November 21 to be suitable&comma;” wrote Mr Raab&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote><p>The end is now firmly in sight and&comma; while obstacles remain&comma; it cannot be beyond us to navigate them<&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p>The letter&comma; released by the committee on Wednesday&comma; was dated October 24 and therefore does not reflect any breakthrough in the past few days&period; Negotiations are deadlocked on the question of a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;backstop” arrangement to guarantee that there will be no hard border in Ireland&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Prime Minister Theresa May insists she will not accept an EU proposal which would establish a customs border between Northern Ireland and the British mainland&comma; while Brussels is resisting her plan to keep the whole UK temporarily in a customs union&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Raab wrote&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Despite our differences&comma; we are not far from an agreement on this issue&period; We agree on the principle of a UK-wide customs backstop&period; An agreement on the details of that backstop should be possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Both sides agree that this backstop cannot provide for a permanent UK&sol;EU relationship and are committed to a future relationship that works for the whole of the UK&comma; including Northern Ireland&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are open to talking about ways to achieve this and committed to continuing discussions in order to reach an agreement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The end is now firmly in sight and&comma; while obstacles remain&comma; it cannot be beyond us to navigate them&period; We have resolved most of the issues and we are building up together what the future relationship should look like and making real progress&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We now need to acknowledge the progress that has been made and now work rapidly through the remaining issues and come to an agreement that works for both sides&period;”<br &sol;>&NewLine;Mr Raab had been due to give evidence to the committee on October 24&comma; but pulled out shortly before the crunch October 17-18 European Council summit&comma; with his office saying that he was committed to appear only once a deal was finalised&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In a letter accepting his proposal of a November 21 evidence session&comma; committee chair Hilary Benn said he was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;disappointed” with the new Brexit Secretary’s failure to follow the pattern of regular updates established by his predecessor David Davis&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;And he rejected as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;not sufficient or effective” Mr Raab’s proposal that he could update the committee by letter until the deal was agreed&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Having been a member of this committee&comma; you will know that this is not how committees undertake inquiries and is not conducive to scrutiny&comma;” said Mr Benn&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;With Mr Barnier meeting &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;almost daily” with European Parliament representatives&comma; the Government was failing to live up to Mr Davis’s promise to match the EU negotiator for openness&comma; Mr Benn said&period;- Press Association<&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e4358e2946d">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; 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