Brexit proposal’s details emerge

Britain, EU would retain free-market ties

LONDON — The British government released detailed plans Thursday for what it called a “principled pragmatic and ambitious” Brexit — plans that already triggered the resignation of two top ministers and split the governing Conservative Party, and which face likely resistance from the European Union.

The long-awaited document proposes keeping Britain and the EU in a free market for goods, with a more distant relationship for services.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s government is trying to satisfy Britons who voted for their country to leave the bloc, but to set an independent course without hobbling businesses, security agencies and other sectors that are closely entwined with the EU.

The plan has infuriated Brexit supporters, who think it would limit Britain’s ability to strike trade deals around the world. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit Secretary David Davis quit this week in protest.

The turmoil in May’s government over Brexit has erupted as U.S. President Donald Trump began a four-day visit to Britain on Thursday.

Trump said at a NATO summit in Brussels about Britons, “I don’t know if that is what they voted for.”

May insisted her plan was exactly what they had voted for in a 2016 EU membership referendum.

“They voted for us to take back control of our money, our law and our borders,” she said.

Britain is part of the EU’S single market — which allows for the frictionless flow of goods and services among the 28 member states — and its tariff-free customs union for goods. That will end after the

U.K. leaves the bloc in March. The plans laid out Thursday in a 98-page government paper give Britain’s most detailed answer yet to the question of what will replace them.

Under the blueprint, Britain would stick to a “common rulebook” with the EU for goods and agricultural products in return for free trade, without tariffs or border customs checks.

The government said Britain would act “as if in a combined customs territory” with the EU, using technology at its border to determine whether goods from third countries were bound for Britain or the EU, and charging the appropriate tariffs.