News / Politics

British trade minister says EU is pushing UK to no-deal Brexit

Sunday, 05 August 2018 9:20 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 05 August 2018 9:28 AM ]

British trade minister Liam Fox (File photo)

British trade minister Liam Fox says the UK is likely to leave the European Union without a trade deal.

“I think the intransigence of the (European) commission is pushing us towards no deal,” Fox said in an interview with the Sunday Times.

“We have set out the basis in which a deal can happen but if the EU decides that the theological obsession of the unelected is to take priority over the economic wellbeing of the people of Europe then it’s a bureaucrats’ Brexit — not a people’s Brexit — (and) then there is only going to be one outcome.”

He went on to say that the chances of Britain divorcing the bloc without a deal are at 60 percent.

Britain has until March 2019 to negotiate a divorce deal with Brussels, but if it cannot agree the terms of the deal with EU, it would revert to trading under World Trade Organization rules in March 2019.

The remarks by Fox come two days after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney warned that Britain faces a “high” risk of leaving the bloc with no deal.

“I think the possibility of a no deal is uncomfortably high at this point,” Carney said in an interview with BBC radio on Friday.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has also warned that chances of his country leaving the EU without a deal are increasing by the day.

He called on European powers France and Germany to push the EU toward a deal that could guarantee the interests of both London and Brussels.

Hunt said that Germany and France had a role to play to prevent the EU from imposing its approach on Britain during the final phases of Brexit negotiations, saying a no-deal Brexit would harm both Britain and the EU.

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