UK, EU negotiators reach outline of post-Brexit trade agreement

The deal still needs to be approved by the bloc and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. /Getty Images

U.K. and the European Union negotiators have reached the outline of a post-Brexit trade agreement and are now working on to finalize the wording of the deal after nearly 10 months of negotiations, Bloomberg reports.

The deal still needs to be approved by the bloc and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which means it could still fall apart.

The deal comes a day after Johnson said problems remain in Brexit trade talks but that the U.K. would be fine without a deal.

A Brexit trade deal would ensure that the goods traded between the two sides would remain free of tariffs and quotas, but the talks between London and Brussels focused on fishing and, to a lesser extent, the so-called level playing field.

"The position is unchanged: there are problems," Johnson said about the negotiations. "It's vital that everybody understands that the U.K. has got to be able to control its own laws completely and also that we've got to be able to control our own fisheries."

Failure to secure an agreement would likely hurt European economies, jam borders and disrupt supply chains, with the U.K. defaulting to WTO terms with the 27-state bloc.

The European Parliament had set Sunday as the last moment it could accept the text of any deal if lawmakers were to approve it before the U.K. leaves the single market in two weeks.

(With input from agencies)