London, Dhu-AlQa'dah 23, 1438, August 15, 2017, SPA -- Britain will seek an "interim period" of "close association" with the European Union's customs union to help ease its way into Brexit, according to documents released by the British government Tuesday. Allowing such a transition phase would "provide the necessary time for both the UK and EU authorities and infrastructure providers to implement our future customs arrangements and put in place facilitations and technology-based solutions to make the customs regime as smooth as possible for importers and exporters," according to a statement. Britain voted last year to exit the European Union. Official documents to start the process were filed in March, meaning the country is set to exit the bloc in March 2019, according to dpa. But it remains unclear what trade agreement Britain can reach with the EU, where a significant percentage of its exports go, before the deadline. Worse for Britain, it is not allowed to sign new trade deals with other countries so long as it remains an EU member. According to the proposal, Britain would be able to start work on new trade deals during the interim phase. It did not say how long the interim phase would last. It is not clear how the EU will react to the pitch. The bloc has long insisted that talks on a trade deal with Britain cannot begin until other details about its exit are clarified, such as the rights of EU citizens in Britain or the status of Britain's border with Ireland. The British document said that a proposal on the Irish border would come on Wednesday. On trade, the British document suggests either streamlining trade as much as possible between the two countries, or even an alignment of customs standards, negating the need for a border. The new proposal is part of a promised flurry of new ideas to be released by the British government in advance of the next round of Brexit talks, scheduled for August 28. --SPA 03:36 LOCAL TIME 00:36 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w466333