Brexit Secretary David Davis answers lawmakers’ questions on Thursday ahead of talks in Brussels this weekend, amid signs that the U.K. and European Union are nearing a transition deal that businesses have been pushing both sides to pin down for when Britain leaves the bloc in 2019.

Later, Prime Minister Theresa May chairs a meeting of business leaders in Downing Street, with Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark also attending. The timing is potentially awkward after Unilever said Thursday it is consolidating its headquarters in the Netherlands—abandoning a U.K. base it has maintained for nearly a century.

We are following events in real time. Times stamps are London time.

U.K. Pushing Individual EU States on Future Trade (10:26 a.m.)

Davis urges the EU to make sure the negotiation position it formally adopts at next week’s summit is “sufficiently flexible” to allow the bloc to “think creatively” about the free-trade deal with the U.K.

He said “at least half” of the negotiating efforts the government has made in the last three months has been aimed at ensuring that the EU takes a “flexible, open, and broad” approach to its negotiating guidelines on the future trade terms.
Revealingly, he said this effort has been directed at convincing the 27 other member states, rather than the European Commission. Davis has not been to visit Brussels at all so far this year—now we know why.

Baker Says Unilever Showed U.K. ‘Commitment’ (10:15 a.m.)

Responding to a question on Brexit hurting manufacturing, Steve Baker surprisingly invokes Unilever’s decision on its headquarters: “I am happy to tell him that Unilever today has shown its long term commitment to the U.K. By choosing to locate two fastest-growing business divisions to this country, safeguarding 7,300 jobs and a billion pounds a year in investment.”

Read More: Unilever Chooses Single Base in Netherlands in Blow to May (2)

Baker Says U.K. Seeks ‘Near Frictionless Trade’ (10:08 a.m.)

“Both sides have agreed in principle that we should have a free trade agreement covering all sectors with zero tariffs,” says Steve Baker, a junior minister in the Brexit department. “We believe that with a good quality customs agreement we can achieve near frictionless trade.”

This is a tweak to earlier language, and comes after the prime minister said in her Mansion House speech that the U.K. wants trade with the EU to be “as frictionless as possible.”

Davis Says Transition, Exit Deals ‘Within Reach’ (9:44 a.m.)

Davis is traveling to Brussels this weekend and will meet his EU counterpart Michel Barnier on Monday, raising hopes that a deal is close. In the Commons, he confirmed the sense of optimism, saying he’s “confident” that both a deal on the exit terms and the transitional period are “within reach.”

The March 22 European summit is due to sign off on these draft deals, and set out the bloc’s negotiating position for the future free trade deal with the U.K.

Davis also says the transition period will be based on existing arrangements.