Iceland ‘to seek STRONG Britain trade links after Brexit’, says top minister
ICELAND will look to form strong post-Brexit trade and putting barriers to international commerce would be “unthinkable”, the country’s foreign minister has said.
Iceland's foreign minister has said the country will look for an 'important' trade deal with the UK
The north atlantic country is not a member of the European Union but is a part of the European Economic Area (EEA), along with Norway.
But Britain will no longer be a part of the EEA after it leaves the EU in two years’ time.
Iceland carries out trade talks with the EU through EFTA
This has led Iceland’s foreign minister, Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson, to call a new trade deal “very important”.
Mr Thordarson said: “It’s very important that the transition is as smooth as possible.
“It’s unthinkable that we will see some trade barriers or technical barriers in the year 2019 or 2020.
Douglas Carswell: Post-Brexit trade deals should be very easy
It’s unthinkable that we will see some trade barriers or technical barriers in the year 2019 or 2020
“Everyone will lose from that.”
But the minister also issued a warning to Theresa May that she does not need to accept every EU demand in order to reach a free trade agreement with the bloc.
Mr Thordarson said Mrs May did not have to listen to EU trade demands
He said that Iceland maintains free trade relations with Brussels through the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
He added: “We don’t make EU commitments as EFTA, which is a free trade organisation.
“With the EU we have the EEA agreement, which three of the four EFTA countries are members of.”
But he said Britain’s potential ascension to the bloc would require the agreement of EFTA’s 38 members.