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White House warns of negative impact of UK exit from EU single market

18 January 2017 04:12 (UTC +04:00)

The United Kingdom's exit from the European Union's (EU) single market will make it more difficult for the parties to continue developing a successful partnership strategy, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a briefing on Tuesday, APA reports quoting Sputnik.

Earlier in the day, UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed that the United Kingdom would not remain a member of the EU single market following Brexit, but instead will pursue bilateral free trade agreements with the bloc’s members.

"The United States was going to be encouraging both the leaders of the EU and the leaders of the UK to work effectively together to design a relationship among these critically important American allies," Earnest stated when asked about the UK decision to exit the EU single market. "It [UK’s exit] certainly is going to make these kinds of conversations more complicated."

Earnest added that British elective representatives now have a lot of work to do to create a strategy on dealing with the EU that would serve the UK's best interest.

Earnest also suggested that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration would continue US ongoing efforts to support cooperation between the UK and the EU.