European Union and United Kingdom have finally agreed to a post-Brexit trade deal, ending months of disagreements over fishing rights and future business rules.
With the new deal, UK is set to exit EU trading rules next Thursday – a year after officially leaving the 27-nation bloc.
Britain formally left the EU in January after a deeply divisive referendum in 2016, the first country to split from the political and economic project that was born as the continent rebuilt in the aftermath of World War II.
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The exit will mean big changes for business, with the UK and EU forming two separate markets, and the end of free movement.
However, London remains tied to the EU’s rules during a transition period that runs until midnight on December 31, when UK will leave the bloc’s single market and customs union.
The final 2,000-page agreement was held up by last-minute wrangling over fishing as both sides haggled over the access EU fishermen will get to Britain’s waters after the end of the year.
At a Downing Street press conference on Thursday, December 24, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said; “We have taken back control of our laws and our destiny”.
The text of the agreement has yet to be released, but the PM claimed it was a “good deal for the whole of Europe”.
As the deal was announced, Mr Johnson – who had repeatedly said the UK would “prosper mightily” without a deal – tweeted a picture of himself smiling with both thumbs lifted in the air.
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The deal is done. pic.twitter.com/zzhvxOSeWz
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 24, 2020
At his press conference, he said the £668bn a year agreement would “protect jobs across this country” and “enable UK goods to be sold without tariffs, without quotas in the EU market”.
He said;
The EU began with I think wanting a transition period of 14 years, we wanted three years, we’ve ended up at five years.
According to Johnson, the UK had not got all it wanted on financial services, a vital part of the UK economy, but he insisted the deal was “nonetheless going to enable our dynamic City of London to get on and prosper as never before”.
In a press conference in Brussels, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen said;
This was a long and winding road but we have got a good deal to show for it. It is fair, it is a balanced deal, and it is the right and responsible thing to do for both sides.
She added that now was “time to turn the page and look to the future” and that the UK “remains a trusted partner”.
UK Parliament will be recalled on December 30 to vote on the deal – it will also need to be ratified by European Parliament.
