UK border stance threatens to stall Brexit talks: EU's Tusk

President of the European Council Donald Tusk waiting outside Government buildings in Dublin, Ireland March 8, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

Thomson Reuters

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Brexit negotiations risk stalling if Britain does not present a realistic solution for the future of the Irish border after London rejected an EU proposal last week, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday

"While we must respect this position, we also expect the UK to provide a specific and realistic solution to avoid a hard border. As long as the UK doesn't present such a solution, it is very difficult to imagine substantial progress in Brexit negotiations," Tusk told a news conference in Dublin.

Addressing comments by British finance minister Philip Hammond on Wednesday that the EU's third country equivalence regime for services would be wholly inadequate in any future trade deal, Tusk added that the EU cannot offer the same in services trade as it could in goods.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; editing by John Stonestreet)

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