Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) did not share any news related to the timing dynamics of a new free trade agreement with the United Kingdom.
“I can’t say anything about when the free trade agreement will be finished, because we are negotiating. When we get the result, it will be done. I can not give any forecasts,” Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H) said in the Norwegian parliament (Storting) on Wednesday.
A key issue in the negotiations is that Norway wants to sell more Norwegian seafood in the UK, while the UK wants to sell more cheese and other agricultural products in Norway. The latter is contrary to the Norwegian import protection on agricultural goods.
“These are demanding negotiations. Norway has generally seen very little import protection, except for agriculture, and there are demanding negotiations related to these issues,” Solberg added.
She was challenged by the Center Party’s (SP) Marit Arnstad, who asked for a guarantee that Norwegian import protection would not be weakened.
The new free trade agreement is being negotiated because the UK has left the EU. Norway had actually set October 9 of 2020 as the deadline for reaching an agreement with the UK. As the negotiations failed to end within the deadline, they are now continuing in overtime.
Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayFinance
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