Britain ready to make concessions in EU talks, finance minister says

British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said on Wednesday that Britain would need to be ready to make concessions during the lengthy negotiations that will precede Britain officially leaving the bloc.

“Every negotiation is about give and take on both sides, and we have to go into this discussion understanding and accepting that we will have to do some give and take to get the best possible deal for Britain,” Hammond told Britain’s Sky News.

“It has to be a deal that works for Britain and for its European Union partners, that’s the only way you can get a deal done. But I’m confident as we’ve explored over the last nine months with our EU partners that we have a sufficient meeting of minds on this issue,” he said.

Hammond was speaking to the media just hours before Prime Minister Theresa May officially starts the process of Britain leaving the European Union by triggering Article50 of the bloc’s Lisbon Treaty. Hammond also said that he was confident a mutually beneficial customs arrangement could be found with the EU that would allow for the efficient exchange of goods even after Brexit.

It would not benefit anyone to have “lines of trucks” backed up at the border with Europe, Hammond said in an interview with BBC radio. “It is not in the interests of French farmers who produce fresh produce coming into the UK every day that there are lines of trucks. So I am very confident that we will not get an outcome that is a worst case outcome for everybody. That would be ridiculous,” he added.

EU officials have said they want Britain to pay a Brexit fee before they consider a new trade deal, estimating that the UK’s share of EU debts, pensions and outstanding bills could be up to €60 billion.

But Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has urged May not to agree to a large payout and Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, has also dismissed any suggestion of a “Brexit bill”. Hammond went on to say that leaving the EU would ensure that Britain regains sovereign control over immigration as well as reassert the supremacy of Britain’s parliament and court.