Prime Minister Boris Johnson will outline tough terms for post-Brexit trade talks with the European Union, saying in a speech on Monday that "Britain will prosper" regardless of the outcome, Eurasia Diary reports citing Deutsche Welle.
"There is no need for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules on competition policy, subsidies, social protection, the environment, or anything similar," Johnson will say in his speech, according to excerpts released by his office on Sunday, just days after the UK left the now 27-member bloc.
He is also expected to say that if the European Union does not accept an agreement similar to the EU's arrangement with Canada, then trade with the EU will have to be based on the UK's existing withdrawal agreement with the bloc, which would be "more like Australia's."
Johnson will say he expects it would be a "highly unlikely event" that the UK will not succeed in striking an arrangement like Canada, but that "in either case, I have no doubt that Britain will prosper."