It's a fixed point! Hammond says UK WILL leave single market & customs union by March 2019
CHANCELLOR Philip Hammond confirmed the UK will leave the single market and customs union but called for a transitional deal to minimise disruption.
Hammond confirms that Brexit will mean exit from single market
While discussing his two-phase plan for a transitional exit from the European Union, the Chancellor firmly pledged the UK will leave the internal market but will seek to establish a new trade relationship with the EU in order to “protect British business.”
He said that Brexit will be a “smooth and steady” process and that there was a “broad understanding” within the Cabinet that the UK will go through “an interim period that will not look like the end state” of Brexit.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 Today host Sarah Montague, Hammond spoke about the “new opportunities” leaving the EU will give the UK in terms of trade with third-party countries.
“We have a very important trading relationship with the EU and we want to exit in a way that protects business with EU nations.”
“But we want to explore new paths.”
Trade Minister Liam Fox and Foreign Minister Boris Johnson have recently begun to embark in talks with the United States and Australia respectively to discuss future free trade agreements to sign into force after the Uk divorce from the EU is finalised.
Chancellor Hammond said the Government was trying to protect UK economy by pursuing a transition deal to maintain functionality and disrupt British citizens’ daily lives as little as possible.
Philip Hammond: We need a gradual shift to post-Brexit UK
“There will be a process between the day we leave the EU and the day the new treaty between the EU and the UK comes into force,”
He, however, reassured that the transitional period will come to an end by the time the next general is held in 2022.
On the matter of migration, Hammond said that the UK will adopt new measures to register who enters the country and thus control the number of EU workers who move to the UK.
The Chancellor confirmed that it will “take some time to put into place” new arrangements independent from EU legislation, but that the Government will “steer the path” to set up a functional new system that will deliver for the British people “business, as usual, life as normal.”