Cable Sinks To Session Lows As UK Slams “Absurd” EU Trade Rules, Expects “Open & Fair” Competition

The pound sinks to session lows as Boris Johnson’s chief negotiator David Frost said democracy would “snap – dramatically and finally” if Britain is forced to follow European Union law after Brexit, reported The Telegraph.

Britain demands an open and fair competition based on a free trade agreement with the EU, Frost said, adding that EU trade rules are “absurd.” 

Sir David Frost public speech in Brussels on Brexit and the new relationship. In a nutshell: #Brexit was a matter of time because Napoleon did not invade the UK.

(He did not say “Napoleon” but take it as shorthand for constitution,civil law,Hegel idealism vs Burke’s utilitarism) pic.twitter.com/wNbKckX1bM

— Serafín Pazos-Vidal (@SPazosVidal) February 17, 2020

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“To think that we might accept EU supervision on so-called level playing field issues simply fails to see the point of what we are doing,” Frost said during a speech at a Brussels university on Monday evening.

Ahead of trade negotiations expected in early March, Frost said freedom to diverge from EU rules and regulations was the “point of the whole project” of Brexit and “central” to Johnson’s idea for the country’s future.

Frost said the “UK would not extend the transition period beyond end-2020.”

“Tying UK to EU rules would undermine public backing for UK government at home,” he said, adding that “EU must endorse the relationship of equals if it wants a sustainable relationship with the UK.”

“We bring to the negotiations not some clever tactical positioning but the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country,” Frost said.

He added:

“It is central to our vision that we must have the ability to set laws that suit us – to claim the right that every other non-EU country in the world has.”

The pound tumbles to session lows after Frost’s speech: