Mubasher: The UK will seeks to ink a free trade deal with the European Union (EU) after leaving the bloc, according to Reuters.

The European Commission on Thursday said that the key shift in the political declaration attached to the new withdrawal agreement was the UK’s choosing a free trade agreement (FTA).

“The political declaration provides for an ambitious FTA with zero tariffs and quotas between the EU and the UK,” a statement by the bloc’s executive arm was quoted by Reuters.

This came after London and Brussels said that they have hammered out a new Brexit deal that will be presented to the EU leaders later in the day and has still to win the approval of the UK parliament on Saturday.

The political declaration stipulates that “robust commitments on a level playing field should ensure open and fair competition.”

“The precise nature of commitments will be commensurate with the ambition of the future relationship and take into account the economic connectedness and geographic proximity of the UK,” the Commission statement said.

By 11:05 am GMT, the GBP/USD pair went up by 0.19% to $1.2856, while the EUR/GBP pair rose by 0.21% to GBP 0.8646.