This was a long episode with a lot of hard vocabulary! Good job for listening and sticking through until the end. IMPORTANT NOTE: There will NOT be a podcast tomorrow (Friday) morning. I am traveling and will not be able to record. We will resume the podcast Monday morning around the same time! Until then, study hard and keep learning more vocabulary!

VOCAB WORDS:
- transition
- negotiations
- agreement
- divorce
- institutions

TRANSCRIPT: 
The EU's chief negotiator in trade talks with former member Britain warned Thursday of “serious divergences" between the two sides after the conclusion of the first round of negotiations.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Michel Barnier highlighted four main areas of disagreement. These relate to the so-called level playing field, judicial cooperation, governance and fisheries.

“Our differences come as no surprise," Barnier said. “Especially after only one round of negotiations. But some are very, very difficult."

Britain left the EU on Jan. 31, the first country ever to do so. This week's talks marked the start of a process aimed at securing new commercial, fishing and other ties with the world’s biggest trading bloc.

The teams are expected to meet every two to three weeks, alternating between Brussels and London. Half a dozen or so rounds of negotiations are expected to take place by the end of June.

Under the divorce agreement signed last year, Britain must decide by June 30 whether it wants to extend a transition period that is aimed at smoothing its departure from the bloc, of which it was a member of for 47 years.

Barnier said the changes that will come at the end of the transition period are being “underestimated," and warned that it won't be “business as usual" as new customs arrangements, for example, come into force.

During the transition, Britain remains within the EU's economic orbit, including its single market for trade in goods and services, even though it has left its political institutions.

CREDITS:
Article: EU's Barnier Warns of Big Divergences With UK in Talks
Author: Samuel Petrequin
Publisher: U.S. News & World Report
Link: https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2020-03-05/eus-barnier-warns-of-big-divergences-with-uk-in-talks