(Bloomberg) --

What’s Happening? Boris Johnson threatens the European Union with a deadline.

The British Prime Minister has told the EU he’ll walk away from the negotiating table in June if it’s not clear he’s going to get a Canada-style trade agreement with the bloc.

Read More: Boris Johnson Gives EU Four Months to Make a Brexit Deal — Or He Walks

The warning came as Britain set out its key demands in trade talks that begin next week. If the negotiations fail, Britain will default to trading with the EU on terms set by the World Trade Organization — meaning tariffs, quotas and all the economic costs that come with them.

As ever, the big flashpoints are access to fishing waters and the level-playing field. The government's decision to prioritize sovereignty over any trade deal, though, makes compromise with the EU in this area harder. It argues that only the European Court of Justice can police Britain's compliance with the bloc's rule-book — something the U.K. rejects. But there could room for a fudge here.

Both sides will at least sit down together on Monday. For all the bluster, they may not be so far apart. The risk, as Ian Wishart has pointed out, is that in this latest bout, Brussels may have misjudged Johnson.

Beyond Brexit

  • An army of 100,000 Chinese ducks is waiting to be deployed to neighboring Pakistan to fight a swarm of crop-eating locusts.
  • The novel coronavirus has an unlikely victim: one of the world’s most popular beers. 
  • These are the bizarre rich-people secrets Businessweek’s Brandon Presser learned while working undercover at Canyon Ranch.

Brexit in Brief

Border Blues | Fewer EU citizens arrived in Britain in the year through September than at any time since 2012 as the political drama over Brexit reached a climax.

Could Do Better | If anything, Johnson's Brexit demands are a little cautious, former U.K. trade negotiator David Henig writes in the Telegraph.   

Ulster Says No | Matthew O'Toole, the SDLP’s Brexit spokesperson, said the British government's negotiating mandate has “opted to put Northern Ireland's economy at risk” in order to indulge “the fixations of English nationalists and libertarian fantasists.”

History Lessons | Dominic Cummings has caused Cromwellian levels of resentment over Brexit, according to the Evening Standard. 

Reliable Robots | More than a fifth of British people would trust artificial intelligence over politicians to handle Brexit, new research suggests. 

Want to keep up with Brexit?

You can follow us @Brexit on Twitter, and listen to Bloomberg Westminster every weekday.

To contact the authors of this story: Edward Evans in London at eevans3@bloomberg.netCaitlin Morrison in London at cmorrison59@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Kay at ckay5@bloomberg.net

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.