he lays out terms for Canada-style agreement today
- Prime Minister will tell EU leaders he wants a Canada-style free trade agreement
- Boris Johnson will say he would rather accept trade tariffs than EU rules
- His speech comes as the EU will also unveil its guidelines for Brexit talks
Boris Johnson will today rule out accepting Brussels regulations as he squares up to the European Union over a trade deal. Setting out his vision for the country’s post-Brexit relationship, the Prime Minister will tell EU leaders he wants a Canada-style free trade agreement. But in a tough-talking speech, he will warn they must drop demands that the UK sticks to their regulations as the price of a deal. If the leaders refuse to back down, Mr Johnson will say he would rather accept trade tariffs than EU rules and would instead follow Australia’s trading relationship with the EU, which is based on World Trade Organisation terms. ‘In either case, I have no doubt that Britain will prosper,’ the Prime Minister will say. Boris Johnson will today rule out accepting Brussels regulations as he squares up to the European Union over a trade deal His speech, which he will deliver to an audience of business leaders and ambassadors in London, comes as the EU will also unveil its guidelines for Brexit talks. The two sides are set on a collision course as the EU insists that any deal is dependent on the UK signing up to a ‘level playing field’ on regulations and rules, which would effectively stop British businesses being able to undercut those on the continent. But the Prime Minister will argue no other country which has a trade deal with the EU has been forced to sign up to such obligations. He will say: ‘There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policy, subsidies, social protection, the environment or anything similar, any more than the EU should be obliged to accept UK rules. In the ‘very unlikely event’ that talks do not succeed, Mr Johnson will say in his speech he will seek a much looser arrangement. ‘The choice is emphatically not ‘deal or no deal’. The question is whether we agree a trading relationship with the EU comparable to Canada’s – or more like Australia’s,’ he will insist. ‘In either case, I have no doubt that Britain will prosper.’ But Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said any suggestion the UK will have to follow EU rules and laws after 2021 ‘just ain’t happening’. He told Marr that staying tied to EU regulations ‘obviously defeats the point of Brexit’. At the end of the transition period in December, the country will leave the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy, which dictates how much British trawlers can catch and where. Fishermen complain they do not get a fair share of what is caught in UK waters. The Fisheries Bill going through Parliament will end the automatic right of EU vessels to fish in British waters, with access to fisheries set to be a matter for the UK to negotiate regulations in any trade deal. Nick Note: Bye bye Pound!