EU's Barnier says ambitious deal with UK conditional on fair competition

EU's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier holds a news conference setting out the European Commission's plans for negotiations with Britain.

The European Union wants an ambitious zero-tariffs and zero-quotas trade deal with Britain but this will be conditional on open and fair competition between the UK and the 27-nation bloc it quit last week, the EU's Brexit negotiator said on Monday (February 3).

Michel Barnier, unveiling the European Commission's mandate for talks with Britain on the future relationship between London and Brussels, said there should be a level playing field over the long term on social, state aid and environmental standards.

Barnier said a free trade agreement must include a deal on fisheries that would give reciprocal access to waters and warned that an absence of deal by the end of the year could lead to a 'cliff edge.'

The deal will define post-Brexit relations between the world's fifth largest economy and its biggest trading partner.