Brexit Bulletin: The virus takes over

Follow Us Get the newsletter What isn't happening? Important meetings. Lots of them. With Britain's final parting from the European Union less than eight months away, businesses had expected to be locked in deliberations with government officials by now. But they're not. Civil servants have been canceling key meetings to discuss critical issues such as how customs controls will work as they are redeployed to deal with the coronavirus crisis, Bloomberg's Joe Mayes reports. With the government grappling with a crisis unprecedented in peacetime, corporate lobbyists say the question is no longer whether Brexit will be delayed, but how Prime Minister Boris Johnson will sell a delay to the British public. Severing ties with the EU wouldn't be the only major event to be put on hold by the virus: a pivotal United Nations climate change summit, due to be held in Glasgow in November, has been deferred until 2021. And that's before we lament the loss of Wimbledon and the Edinburgh Fringe. In public, the U.K. insists it will press on with Brexit—Johnson's spokesman James Slack told reporters on Wednesday there are no discussions about extending the transition period. And the joint U.K.-EU committee on implementing the Withdrawal Agreement did actually manage to hold its first meeting by teleconference on Monday. If Johnson does press on, businesses have a blunt warning for him: the coronavirus has brought them to their knees. Firms have no desire to grapple simultaneously with the inevitable upheaval Brexit will bring. Leaving the EU is the one subject right now where the prime minister is coming under pressure to do as little as he can. — Edward Evans Beyond Brexit 6.65 million people made jobless claims in the U.S. last week. China hit back after U.S. intelligence said Beijing had under-reported Covid-19 cases and deaths. A county in central China is back under lockdown. Spain's death toll hit a new height. Glimmers of hope emerged in Italy. France is testing a malaria drug on Covid-19. Results don't look great. Restaurants across London cooking for NHS workers. Sign up here for our daily coronavirus newsletter, and subscribe to our Covid-19 podcast. Click here for the latest maps and data on the spread of coronavirus. Want to keep up with Brexit? You can follow us @Brexit on Twitter, and listen to Bloomberg Westminster every weekday. It's live at midday on Bloomberg Radio and is available as a podcast too.  Share the Brexit Bulletin:  Colleagues, friends and family can sign up here.  For full EU coverage, try the Brussels Edition. For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for our unmatched global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.   Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can't find anywhere else. Learn more.   You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Brexit Bulletin newsletter. Unsubscribe | Bloomberg.com | Contact Us Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022