MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Brexit talks are set to start Monday with UK Brexit Secretary David Davis' meeting European Union's chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
“When I talk about a Brexit that supports British jobs, British investment, British business, I mean a Brexit that avoids those cliff edges, that ensures that we segue seamlessly from the customs union that we are in at the moment to a new arrangement in the future that will continue to allow British goods to flow not just without tariffs, because actually, tariffs are a relatively small part of the problem, it is without delays and bureaucracy,” Hammond told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.
The UK citizens voted to leave the European Union at the referendum on June 23, 2016, and on March 29, 2017 London officially started the process of withdrawing from the bloc by triggering the Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
On January 17, UK Prime Minister Theresa May laid down 12-point Brexit plan, implying exit from the EU with a single market and the customs union, namely the so-called hard Brexit. May said the United Kingdom would sign bilateral trade deals with the countries of UK interest to avoid negative economic implications.
On Tuesday, UK Environment Secretary Michael Gove objected to the term "hard Brexit," which to him seemed to be "invented by people who want to make our decision to free ourselves from the European Union seem like some sort of punishment."
