Britain wants to have a comprehensive trade deal with the European Union as well as a defence pact in place once it leaves the bloc, Prime Minister Theresa May said in remarks published in a German newspaper on Saturday.
May added that her government was not seeking to “cherry pick” in the negotiations and that it wanted a trade deal that goes further than that which the EU has with Norway or Canada simply because Britain is negotiating from a different position to those two countries.
“It is not about cherry picking,” May told the mass-selling Bild newspaper.
“We want to negotiate for a comprehensive free trade deal and security pact. We are in a different starting position than Canada or Norway.”
Britain and the EU struck a divorce deal last month that paved the way for talks on future trade ties and boosted hopes of an orderly Brexit, according to a Reuters report.
“We are leaving the EU but not Europe,” she said.