Brexit trade deal talks to begin as soon as Britian leaves

Britain will begin negotiating new trade deals with countries outside the European Union once it has left the bloc on January 31, Boris Johnson has confirmed.

The Prime Minister said it was 'epically likely' that the UK would strike a comprehensive trade deal with the EU by the end of 2020 - when the transition period ends.

However, Mr Johnson warned that 'you always have to budget for a complete failure of common sense'.

His comments follow reports that the UK would seek to conduct parallel post-Brexit trade talks with the US and EU from February.

He told BBC Breakfast: "Obviously you always have to budget for a complete failure of common sense, that goes without saying, but I'm very, very, very confident that we'll get a (deal).

"This is not about a deal, this is about building a great new partnership. And from January 31, what we're going to do is start working with our friends and partners around the world - not just with the EU.

"We're going to start building new relationships with friends and partners around the world."

Britain is scheduled to leave the EU on January 31, but will enter a transition period until the end of the year.

Mr Johnson has insisted he will not push back the deadline, but critics claim that the timescale is too tight to reach a new deal.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, whose country holds the rotating council presidency, told MEPs: "The transition period of 11 months is extremely short and it will take a lot of goodwill and a lot of work to bring these negotiations to an end in that period."

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator has said that if Britain wants as much access as possible to the bloc's market after it leaves, it will not have unfettered freedom to subsidise its industry.

Michel Barnier also insisted that the state aid rules in any future trade deal would be more stringent than with nations such as Canada or Japan, simply because of the physical proximity of the departing EU nation.

"If the UK wants an open link with us for the products - zero tariffs, zero quotas - we need to be careful about zero dumping at the same time," Mr Barnier told a conference in Stockholm.

"I hope that this point is and will be correctly understood by everybody. We will ask necessarily certain conditions on state aid policy in the UK," Mr Barnier said.

He added that if that is not the case, access to the lucrative EU market will be negatively affected.

The EU has been stressing the need for a level playing field in the upcoming trade deal negotiations, meaning that access will be strictly linked to commitments to social welfare and environmental standards, among others.

Mr Barnier stressed the need for state aid limits too.

As a member state, Britain was bound by strict state aid rules enforced by the powerful European Commission to make sure there would be no unfair competition among EU nations in its vast single market.

Third countries are not immediately bound by such strictures.

Britain has decided to leave the EU by January 31, partly because it does not want to be tied down by EU rules, which it feels impedes its sovereignty.

But negotiating a trade deal will still involve many compromises on rule setting.

Mr Barnier also insisted that Britain's goal to have a full free trade deal by the end of the year was unrealistic.

"We cannot expect to agree on every aspect of this new partnership," Mr Barnier said, adding "we are ready to do our best in the 11 months".

During a transition period ending on December 31, a new relationship between the EU and the UK will be negotiated.

Full trade covers everything from fisheries to the airline industry to medicines, but the EU insists to deal with all these issues in one year is a pipe dream.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted he will not agree to any more delays - a vow that has set off alarm bells among businesses, which fear it means the country will face a no-deal Brexit at the start of 2021.