British lawmakers support UK-EU post-Brexit trade deal on the eve of the deadline

“This bill embodies our vision – shared with our European neighbors – of a new relationship between Britain and the EU as sovereign equals, united by friendship, trade, history, interests and values, while respecting the freedom of action one another and recognizing that we have nothing to fear if we sometimes choose to do things differently, “said Johnson.

The agreement has already received provisional approval from the European Union, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel formally signing the agreement on Wednesday.

The European Parliament is expected to examine the agreement at a later date before it can be formally ratified by the European Union.

The agreement signed with Brussels establishes a new business and security relationship with the UK’s largest trading partner after months of stalemate in areas such as fishing quotas, as the UK would use state aid to support British post-Brexit companies and legal supervision of any deal closed.

The deal, which preserves Britain’s tariff-free access to consumers in the bloc, saves the United Kingdom some of the most dire potential consequences of Brexit as it fights a paralyzing pandemic.

The deal also appears to mainly cover trade in goods, where the UK has a deficit with its EU neighbors, but excludes essential service sectors, such as finance, where it currently enjoys a surplus.

Opposition leader Keir Starmer, who campaigned against Brexit, said the project was “weak” and did not protect trade in the service sector, but that the Labor Party would support it given the devastating alternative: leaving the transition period without wake up.

The bill – which has 80 pages, in contrast to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) of more than 1,200 pages – was also criticized for being rushed.

“Parliament is considering implementing the TCA less than 48 hours before it is applied – so late that it makes the ‘no-deal’ the only possible alternative, and of extremely limited use for those directly affected by it,” he said. Brigid Fowler, senior researcher at the Hansard Society, wrote.

The vote was against the backdrop of the emergence of cases of Covid-19 in the United Kingdom, while a more contagious variant of the virus spreads across the country.