BRUSSELS – With the European Union's chief negotiator Michel Barnier in quarantine, trade talks with the United Kingdom continued by videoconference this week, though the optimism expressed last week seemed to have faded.Barnier stressed on Monday that negotiators were running out of time to make a Jan.
1 deadline and that “fundamental divergences still remain." The talks were shifted to a videoconference last week when an EU official tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing Barnier into a quarantine until at least Thursday.