Britain cannot remain in the European Union's single market and customs union but should negotiate a transitional Brexit deal that replicates as much as possible its membership of those structures, British Finance Minister Philip Hammond said.
"My preference is that we negotiate a transitional structure," he said on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Hamburg.
This would take Britain "outside of those memberships (the single market and customs union)" but during a transition replicate "as much as possible of the existing arrangements so the shock to business is minimized for the transition period."
Hammond said Britain wanted a Brexit deal that is "very business friendly in the long term" with "as full as possible reciprocal access to markets and as frictionless a border for our goods traffic as we possibly can achieve."