EU awaits counterproposals from UK in Brexit standoff

By RAF CASERT
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — Another week of Brexit negotiations still left the European Union awaiting a firm counterproposal from the United Kingdom to ease a standoff over how to deal with Britain’s departure from the bloc. Both sides are fighting over differences in how to regulate trade in Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK but also belongs to the EU’s huge single market in a Byzantine deal that proved essential in the Brexit divorce negotiations. Both sides recognize that deal is far from perfect and have been negotiating on how to improve the movement of goods to Northern Ireland from Britain without giving London unfettered backdoor passage to the market of the 27-nation bloc.