Must Read: British PM to back EU free trade deal after Brexit -Risingsuntv

Prime Minister Theresa May will call Friday for an
unprecedented free trade deal with the EU after Brexit in a
major speech, but is expected to acknowledge that Britain
will have to make sacrifices in its economic relationship.














As tensions with Brussels soar over the implications for
Northern Ireland, May will also emphasise that Britain
wants to be “good friends and neighbours” with the EU, a
minister said.

A woman walks past a house where “Vote Leave” boards
are displayed in Redcar, north east England on June 27,
2016
Britain’s historic decision to leave the 28-nation bloc has
sent shockwaves through the political and economic
fabric of the nation. It has also fuelled fears of a break-up
of the United Kingdom with Scotland eyeing a new
independence poll, and created turmoil in the opposition
Labour party where leader Jeremy Corbyn is battling an
all-out revolt.
AP/PHOTO















In a much-anticipated major speech, just weeks before
trade talks are due to start in Brussels, May will argue
Britain must forge its own path free from the bloc’s
current rules.

But she will call for the “broadest and deepest possible
agreement, covering more sectors and co-operating more
fully than any free trade agreement anywhere in the world
today”.













May will say this is “achievable” because “rather than
having to bring two different systems closer together, the
task will be to manage the relationship once we are two
separate legal systems”.

EU leaders have been pressing the prime minister to
clarify what she wants before they agree their position on
the future economic partnership at a summit later this
month.
















Brussels raised the pressure this week with a draft treaty
suggesting Northern Ireland could stay in a customs
union with the EU while the rest of Britain remained
outside.
– Fall-back option –
The proposal is a fall-back option if London fails to come
up with a better solution to avoid new customs checks
between Northern Ireland and Ireland, where some fear a
“hard border” could upset the fragile peace.
But it prompted outrage in Westminster, where May
warned it threatened the integrity of her country and was
something that “no UK prime minister could ever agree
to”.















A senior minister indicated Friday that May would
however use her speech to address accusations —
including by two former British prime ministers this week
— that she has not been honest about the downsides of
Brexit.














“She is going to recognise that there are things that we
can’t have as we leave the single market and as we leave
the customs union,” transport secretary Chris Grayling
told BBC radio.
But she would set out areas that would benefit both sides,
including staying part of some EU agencies such as on
aviation, he said, adding that Britain wants to be “good
friends and neighbours”.
– ‘No frictionless trade’ –
In a speech that had to be moved at the last minute from
the northeast of England to London due to bad weather,
May will emphasise that the 2016 referendum vote to
leave the EU “was a vote to take control of our borders,
laws and money”.














But EU President Donald Tusk warned Thursday ahead of
talks with the prime minister that Britain could not expect
to sever formal ties with its closest trading partner and
still reap the same benefits.
“There can be no frictionless trade outside of the
customs union and the single market,” he said.













May’s government is divided on the way forward, and her
speech was drawn up following a marathon meeting of
senior ministers last week, and endorsed in a special
session of the full cabinet on Thursday.
Eurosceptics warn that staying in the customs union and
single market are akin to not leaving the EU at all, and
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has suggested the
Northern Ireland issue was being used to force a change
in strategy.












Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading eurosceptic lawmaker in
May’s Conservative party, told AFP that there were
“technological solutions” to avoiding a hard Irish border.
He said that for Britain to stay in a customs union, forced
to follow EU rules while losing its seat at the table as an
EU member, would be “fatal for Brexit”.
However, the main opposition Labour party on Monday
came out in favour of the idea, which is already backed
by the main business lobby groups.
















Their change in stance raises the stakes in parliament,
which will vote on the final exit deal and where May has
only a slim majority.