HIGHLIGHTS-PM Johnson says Britain ready to make case for free trade

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson set out his negotiating terms for trade talks with the European Union in a speech in London on Monday. Below are the highlights of the speech:

ON FREE TRADE "It has been free trade that has done more than any other single economic idea to raise billions out of poverty, and incredibly fast".

ON CHALLENGES "I am here to warn you today that this beneficial magic is fading. Free trade is being choked, and that is no fault of the people, that is no fault of individual consumers. I'm afraid it is the politicians who are failing to lead, the mercantilists are everywhere, the protectionists are gaining ground.

"From Brussels to China to Washington, tariffs are being waved around like cudgels." "There is ever growing proliferation of non-tariff barriers, and the resulting tensions are letting the air out of the tyres of the world economy."

ON THE NEED FOR SOMEONE TO ACT "Humanity needs some government somewhere that is willing to make the case powerfully for freedom of exchange. Some country ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles and leap into the phone booth and emerge with his cloak flowing as the supercharged champion of the right of populations of the earth to buy and sell freely among each other.

"We are ready for the great multi-dimensional game of chess in which we engage in more than one negotiation at once." WHISKY TARIFF

"It is high time, I think we all agree, that they (the United States) cut their punitive tariffs on Scotch Whisky."