- EU may not be ready to negotiate a free trade deal with the UK until March.
- Simon Coveney also warned of trade negotiation issues.
- GBP/USD has recovered from early session lows.
More issues for GBP and EUR today as the EU commented on any potential future relationship saying it will "take some time" for the bloc to draw up its mandate for negotiations on the future relationship. The comments came from Eric Mamer, chief spokesman for the European Commission at a media briefing in Brussels. The EU has also stated they might not be ready to negotiate a free trade deal with the UK until March.
This comes after Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned that the EU will not agree on a free trade agreement unless it signs up to "equivalence" in the way of goods are produced in the UK and EU.
Both EUR/USD and GBP/USD are trading 0.05% lower today and EUR/GBP is just moving above flat, reading 0.8535 at the time of writing.
This is sure to be a theme as we head closer to the trade negotiations but over the weekend UK Chancellor Sajid Javid said that the UK are looking for a Canada-style free trade agreement with the EU. He also said that UK business should prepare for "no alignment" with EU regulations after Brexit.
Overall GBP/USD has been mixed today. At the open, the price dropped as low as 1.2962 but now traders found support and the pair has consolidated at around 1.30.
Over the week we are due to hear from Sajid Javid again at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Also, there is a packed data schedule for GBP traders to consume, the main highlights being earnings data and PMIs at the end of the week.
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