'We won't blink first': UK warns the EU on Brexit trade negotiations

Britain's top Brexit negotiator warned the European Union that the island country will not blink first in trade negotiations with the EU and is not scared of a no-deal exit.

Britain left the European Union on January 31. However, talks have so far made little headway on agreeing on a new trade deal with the bloc by the time a status-quo transition arrangement ends in December.

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"We came in after a government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously," negotiator David Frost told the Mail on Sunday.

"So a lot of what we are trying to do this year is to get them to realise that we mean what we say and they should take our position seriously," he was quoted as saying.

According to Britain, the EU is dragging its feet in talks and has failed to fully accept that it is now an independent country.

"We are not going to be a client state. We are not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws," Frost told the Mail.

"We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things," he added.

"That's what being an independent country is about, that's what the British people voted for and that's what will happen at the end of the year, come what may," Frost said.

As per Frost, a lot of preparation had been done for a possible exit without a trade deal.

"I don't think that we are scared of this at all," Frost said. "If we can reach an agreement that regulates trade like Canada's, great. If we can't, it will be an Australian-like trading agreement and we are fully ready for that."

(Inputs from Reuters)