After Brexit, UK aims for trade deal with EU that tops Canada pact

London (Reuters): Britain is aiming to secure a comprehensive free trade deal with the European Union and wants it to be signed shortly after it leaves the bloc in 2019, Brexit minister David Davis said on Sunday.

After securing an initial agreement on Friday to move Brexit talks to a second phase, Prime Minister Theresa May is keen to start discussing future ties with the EU, and especially the type of trading agreement to try to offer greater certainty for businesses.

But despite Davis striking a confident tone, EU officials say they will only launch negotiations on a legally binding treaty after Britain leaves and becomes a “third country”, according to draft negotiating guidelines.

“It’s not that complicated, it comes right back to the alignment point ... We start in full alignment, we start in complete convergence so we can work it out from there,” Davis told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

“The thing is how we manage divergence so it doesn’t undercut the access to the market,” he said, describing his preferred deal as “Canada plus plus plus”.

The EU has been considering a post-Brexit free trade deal with Britain along the lines of one agreed last year with Canada.

But the UK economy is nearly twice the size of Canada’s and British officials have said that their current alignment with EU standards and much closer trading links with the continent give them scope for an even deeper relationship.

May has been hailed by many in her deeply divided Conservative party for rescuing the agreement to unlock the Brexit talks by offering EU member Ireland and her allies in Northern Ireland a pledge to avoid any return of a hard border.