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  1. German firms 'had beads of sweat' over Brexit

    Image caption: German liberal Alexander Lambsdorff is a veteran of EU politics

    A leading German liberal MP, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, is upbeat on the type of deal emerging, saying the key thing is to avoid numerous tariffs and quotas.

    Some 30,000 German firms trade with the UK, he noted, and “some have really had beads of sweat on their brows”.

    He told Deutschlandfunk radio that “it would be a good thing” if the negotiators really had agreed to keep EU-UK trade free of tariffs and quotas.

    He also said “it appears European fishing crews have succeeded in retaining at least 75% of their current catch over the next five years, and of course that’s far more than the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Belgians could have expected”.

    He is foreign affairs spokesman for the Free Democrats (FDP) and a former Euro MP.