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Brexit talks will lead to deal on ‘frictionless movement of goods’, says Johnson

Mr Johnson insisted Brexit would lead to great opportunities for trade deals around the world.

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Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has said he expects Brexit negotiations to produce an agreement delivering “a strong EU buttressed and supported by a strong UK”.

Speaking during a visit to Australia, Mr Johnson insisted that both the UK and EU had a mutual interest in preserving and enhancing “frictionless” movement of goods, allowing the City of London to thrive and combining inter-governmental co-operation with a “giant” trade deal.

And he said Brexit would allow the UK to seek new opportunities around the world, including in Australia, where he was hoping for a “great” trade deal.

The Foreign Secretary revealed that, after he was spotted jogging on the streets of Sydney, Ms Bishop had presented him with “a beautiful pair of compression tights, as worn by Hugh Jackman”.

And he won laughter from his audience at the Lowy Institute by quoting the lyrics of Aussie band Men At Work’s hit Down Under and telling them about the export of 100,000 boomerangs to Australia each year from a firm in Leighton Buzzard – which he said were “the boomerangs that don’t come back”.

Discussing the Brexit negotiations under way in Brussels, Mr Johnson said: “I have no doubt that we will get a great deal that preserves and even enhances the frictionless movement of goods that is in the interests of both sides of the Channel.

“I’m sure that we will get a solution that does nothing to undermine the interests of Britain’s financial sector, because the real rivals of the City are not in Paris or in Frankfurt, they are in Hong Kong and Singapore and New York.

“In the end, everybody in our part of the world understands that London is a fantastic asset for the entire continent, because that is where you find the deepest pool of liquidity.

“When we do that deal, inter-governmental co-operation and a giant free trade deal, I believe we will create a solution that has been long desired and long in the making – a strong EU buttressed and supported by a strong UK, with each side freely trading with the other and with the UK able to think about new opportunities in the rest of the world.”

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