Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meet for dinner while trying to break a post-Brexit trade deal on December 9, 2020 in Brussels, Belgium.
WPA Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images
LONDON – Britain and the European Union reached an agreement on Thursday on the new Brexit trade agreements, more than four years after the United Kingdom voted to exit the bloc, narrowly avoiding a potentially disastrous scenario of not wake up.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it was a “good deal”.
“It was a long and winding road, but we have a lot to show,” she said during a news conference. “It is fair, it is a balanced business and it is the right and responsible thing to do for both sides.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to give a press conference shortly.
The United Kingdom ceased to be a full member of the European Union in January, following the Brexit vote on 23 June 2016. However, it agreed to continue to follow European rules until the end of 2020 so that it could negotiate more commercial conditions. friendly with the other 27 nations.
The two sides have been involved in intense negotiations since March to establish how trade will work from January. There have been significant clashes over fishing, competition rules and the governance of their new relationship.
The trade agreement has to be ratified by the UK and EU parliaments in the coming weeks, but it is a welcome development for companies on both sides of the English Channel.
The deal will almost certainly mean lower tariffs and costs for exporters than they would have faced if the UK had left the EU without an agreement.
It puts an end to more than four years of what at times seemed to be endless economic uncertainty and marks the first time that an EU member has formally withdrawn from the political bloc.
This is breaking news and will be updated shortly.