UK PM Theresa May is due to meet her ‘Brexit cabinet’ to discuss for the first time what the country’s future relationship with the EU should be.
The PM will later tell MPs the UK wants to sign trade deals during what she calls an implementation period.
EU leaders have agreed talks can move on, including to discuss a transition deal for a post-Brexit period.
Labour has raised concerns that trade may not be discussed for months.
The EU has published its guidelines for phase two of the negotiations, with discussions on long-term future economic co-operation not likely to begin until March – although “internal preparatory discussions” on future relations can take place before then.
May will tell MPs that the guidelines point to the “shared desires of the EU and the UK to make rapid progress in an implementation period.”
She is expected to add that the UK would “not be in the single markets or the customs union” but ould propose “that our access to one another’s markets would continue as now, while we prepare and implement the new process and new systems that will underpin our future partnership”.
The EU’s guidelines say the UK will “continue to participate in the customs union and single market” during the transition.
May will also tell MPs: “We will prepare for our future independent trade policy by negotiating – and where possible signing – trade deals with third countries, which could come into force after the conclusion of the implementation period.”
Writing in two of the UK Sunday newspapers over the weekend, May vowed she would “not be derailed” from securing an “ambitious” deal.
