EU heads of state have already started to use video conference rather than face-to-face meetings | Pool photo by Michel Euler/AFP via Getty Images Video killed the Brexit-negotiating star Talks will move slower if negotiations are held virtually, experts say.

LONDON — The Brexit talks are going online because of coronavirus — but trade experts see trouble ahead.

The U.K. and EU are discussing how to set up videoconferencing after the virus put an end to the face-to-face negotiations that were due to take place in London next week. “Both sides are currently exploring alternative ways to continue discussions, including if possible the use of video conferences,” a joint statement released on Wednesday revealed.

But trade experts argue that setting out demands to an opponent on a screen is no match for looking into the whites of their eyes.

Andrew MacDougall, who was head of communications for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper during seven years of trade talks with the EU, said it “sounds possible in theory but it’s not practical.”

“People are fooling themselves if they think they will have the same kind of chemistry and ability to get things done over a screen as they will in person,” he said. “So much of this is on intangibles like trust and sentiment and those are really only things that build up from being around the people, being literally across the table from them and having coffees with them in the breaks.”

“It’s not that it absolutely can’t be done but the dynamic is much slower than having lots of people together” — David Henig, former U.K. trade negotiator

MacDougall, who now works for political communications firm Trafalgar Strategy, added that some practical elements like breaking off to have a one-on-one conversation with an opponent would not be possible over video.

Former U.K. trade negotiator David Henig said a Brexit trade deal could be done over videoconference but the process would be much slower. Negotiators are discussing a range of different topics all at once and playing them off against each other. But Henig, who is now a director at the European Centre for International Political Economy, said that might not be possible online.

“Instead of running 11 things simultaneously you can make some progress by doing one in turn,” he explained. “It’s not that it absolutely can’t be done but the dynamic is much slower than having lots of people together.”

He added that keeping minds focused is more challenging during a video call compared with a face-to-face meeting. “People find it difficult to concentrate on the dynamics of a screen and sort of float away into different places,” he said.

One senior business representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, raised technical issues: “Do you really want to negotiate on a line where not only might the sound and picture keep cutting out, but it might not be secure?”

A Downing Street spokesman said, “Secure calls take place across the government estate all the time.”

William Draffin, technical project manager at Eclipse Global, an events management firm, said modern video link systems could use end-to-end encryption or other features to ensure lines cannot be tampered with. “Solutions exist to do completely secure communications," he said.

Draffin argued that the IT infrastructure for a large conferencing event would prevent any technological glitches, although the challenge would come from negotiators being in self-isolation at home who do not have professional equipment.

He added that ultra-high definition conferencing can be done, and that negotiators can set it up so that hand gestures and other body language is visible, to ease the problem of not being in the same space. “[Videoconferencing] is always achievable and you can get several hundred people talking quite effectively together," he said.

However, both MacDougall and Henig argued it would be better to put the talks on hold and extend the Brexit transition period while the two sides grapple with the fallout from the coronavirus crisis. “When you get into negotiating you need to be all in and focused on the task,” MacDougall said. “The U.K. government should use the coronavirus as a lifeline to extend the talks.”

He added, “It is a golden opportunity for all the right reasons: for public health reasons, for sanity reasons, to say, ‘We have a little bit more time now. We have won the battle.' This is about protecting the British economy both from coronavirus and from any kind of self-harm we do just by exiting the EU with a very limited Canada-style deal focused on goods.”

But a Downing Street spokesman insisted the Brexit transition period will not be extended. “It will be possible to do the trade talks,” he said. “Both the EU and U.K. are fully aware of the timetable.”