UK’s Johnson talks tough over post-Brexit trade with EU – By Associated Press (FOX Business) / Feb 3 2020
In a speech in London, Johnson will tell business leaders “we want a free trade agreement.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is setting out a tough opening gambit Monday in negotiations with the European Union, saying the U.K. will walk away without a free-trade deal rather than agree to follow rules set by the 27-nation bloc.
Just 60 hours after Britain left the EU, the first country ever to do so, Johnson is digging in his heels about future relations. In a speech to business leaders and international diplomats in London, Johnson plans to say “we want a free trade agreement,” but not at any cost.
“The choice is emphatically not ‘deal or no-deal,’” Johnson plans to say, according to extracts released by his office. “The question is whether we agree a trading relationship with the EU comparable to Canada’s – or more like Australia’s.”
Australian-style trade would mean a panoply of new tariffs and other barriers between the U.K. and the EU, its near neighbor and biggest trading partner.
In their divorce agreement, Britain and the EU agreed to strike an “ambitious, broad, deep and flexible partnership,” including a free trade deal and agreements for security and other areas. They gave themselves 11 months to do it. A post-Brexit “transition period,” in which relations stay essentially unchanged, runs until the end of 2020. For the rest of this year the U.K. will continue to follow EU rules, although it will no longer have a say in EU decision-making.
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