London: Johnson’s remarks came following the EU Summit discussions on Brexit on Thursday. EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said he will continue intensive talks in the coming weeks and the EU hopes to reach a deal with Britain, but not at any price, Xinhua news agency reported.
Johnson said Britain wanted nothing more complicated than a Canada-style relationship. But to judge by the latest EU summit in Brussels, that won’t work for the EU because they want the continued ability to control Britain’s legislative freedom and fisheries.
“And given that they have refused to negotiate seriously for much of the last few months, and given that this summit appears explicitly to rule out a Canada-style deal, I have concluded that we should get ready for January 1 (2021) with arrangements that are more like Australia’s based on simple principles of global free trade,” the Prime Minister said.
The Australia-style arrangement is an euphemism for failure to reach a free trade agreement with the EU, which means the Britain-EU trade will fall back on World Trade Organization (WTO) rules in 2021.
He called on British businesses, hauliers and travelers to get ready since there are only 10 weeks until the end of the transition period due on December 31, 2020.
Johnson said Britain is willing to discuss the practicalities with the EU where a lot of progress has already been made, on such issues as social security, aviation, nuclear cooperation and so on.
