"If we have no access to the European market, if we are closed off, if Britain were to leave the European Union without an agreement on market access, then we could suffer from economic damage at least in the short-term," he said. "In this case, we could be forced to change our economic model and we will have to change our model to regain competitiveness," Hammond said. "We will change our model, and we will come back, and we will be competitively engaged. "German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the EU must consider limiting Britain's access to its market if London fails to accept the bloc's 'four freedoms' in Brexit negotiations.The EU's single market emerged from the 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European integration. "Clearly we need people to come and work in our economy to keep it functioning," Hammond said.

Source: The Star January 15, 2017 08:08 UTC