No trade deals with UK until Brexit is complete, says Norway's Prime Minister

Erna Solberg says Norway will not collaborate economically with UK until Brussels deal finalised

Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg says Britain will have to wait for a deal (AFP/Getty)

Norway will refuse to negotiate any separate trade deals with the UK until the British government agrees the terms of how it will withdraw from the European Union, the country’s prime minister has said.

Prime Minister Erna Solberg stated there “won’t be any bilateral agreements between Norway and Britain before a solution is in place with the EU”.

“The deal they [the British] get will go a long way to clarify what kind of relationship they will have with European Economic Area (EEA) countries,” she told Reuters.

Supporters of Britain’s deal to leave the EU are hoping the UK follows a template which has become known as the ‘Norway option’, involving membership of the EEA with access to the single European market.

Norway joined the EEA in January 1994 and pays hundreds of millions of euros annually for continued membership of the European internal market.

The UK remains Norway’s third-biggest export destination for goods, with seafood and gas the main exports to Britain.

Ms Solberg added: “Britain has other vital interests than Norway when it comes to negotiating free trade deals with other countries. And this is what we use the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) for.

“We have strategic interests on fish, while Britain’s and Switzerland’s strategic interests are more about finance and other sectors.”

Last week Solberg said she was not yet sure whether it would be “good for Norway” for Britain to gain membership of EFTA.

Countries currently in EFTA have a small combined population of 14 million, compared with Britain’s own 65 million, causing inevitable issues with a potential membership application.

Norway's industry ministry Monica Maeland says it’s far from a clear-cut case that Norway should welcome the UK into EFTA.

"Britain must clarify its position", she said, "Then the EU must decide how they want to work with this and then we need to decide on our position."

Meanwhile experts have cast doubt on the belief that Britain having a similar situation to Norway would bring significant changes to the former’s position in the European political sphere.

Norwegian political commentator Kjetil Wiedswang told Sky News: “If you want to give away your democracy and pay a lot and keep to the same rules as those who make the rules in Brussels, that is your choice.”

On Tuesday it was reported Denmark’s public support for EU membership has swelled to 69 per cent since the UK announced its decision to leave the union.

It was believed Denmark might hold a similar referendum on membership in the near future, but a poll revealed the number of people demanding a vote on the matter has dropped from 41 per cent to 32 per cent.