EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warns that Britain faces 'unavoidable' trade barriers after Brexit if it also quits the bloc's single market and customs union

LONDON, United Kingdom – EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned Monday, February 5, that Britain faced "unavoidable" trade barriers after Brexit if it also quits the bloc's single market and customs union, urging Prime Minister Theresa May to make her choice. The European Union's chief negotiator told Britain on Monday that the time had come for Britain to make a choice on what sort of relationship it wanted with the bloc after

Britain has ruled out staying in any customs union with the EU after Brexit, but the nature of its trading relationship with the world's biggest trading bloc has split Theresa May's government and

Barnier, speaking after talks in Downing Street with Prime Minister May and Secretary David Davis, bluntly called on Britain to clarify how it saw the future relationship with the EU after it leaves on March 29, 2019. However, the May government has come under heavy attack from backbench Brexiteer MPs who have complained that being subject to EU laws without being able to influence them, while also paying into the EU budget, would make the UK a “vassal state”. Davis said the talks with Barnier had been constructive and that he was confident Britain could get agreement on a time-limited transition period by the March economic council which is scheduled for March 13. London and Brussels struck a preliminary deal on key Brexit issues in December but are yet to discuss the conditions for a post-Brexit transition period and future trade relations. The prime minister's spokesman said: "We have said that we want the customs arrangement to be as frictionless as possible and that's what we will be looking to achieve as part of the deep and special partnership we are seeking with the EU. “We will be leaving the EU and the customs union and it is not government policy to be members of ‘the’ customs union or ‘a’ customs union.”

He said the official negotiating stance had been set out in a document published in August giving: “two possible options and they are: a highly streamlined customs arrangement, and a new customs partnership with the EU.”

The spokesman said Britain was still looking at both options, and no deadline for a decision on which one to pursue had been set.
After talks with Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Theresa May and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis in London, E.U. chief negotiator Michel Barnier calls on the United Kingdom to make a choice on what sort of future relationship it wants with the European Union after Brexit.