DAVOS (Sputnik) — On Tuesday, UK Prime Minister Theresa May laid down 12 points of her Brexit plan, saying that she wants to get Britain out of the EU single market and to partially leave the customs union. At the same time, she expressed hope the United Kingdom would manage to agree on zero tariffs with the European Union, and continue to cooperate in certain areas.
"The UK wishes to have access with zero tariff to the EU market. At the same time, the UK would like to have liberty of negotiating trade agreements…. Economically speaking, it is still in a way getting an effect of the customs union… From this point, it is really a negotiation strategy, to see how the EU is ready to negotiate with the UK," Mikuriya said.
The United Kingdom is expected to begin the formal talks on the withdrawal from the European Union by the end of March after London invokes the exit clause of the EU treaty. The UK-EU negotiating process is scheduled to last two years.
