LONDON (AP) – First came the Brexit trade agreement. Now comes bureaucracy and institutional details.
Four days after signing a free trade agreement with the European Union, the British government warned companies on Monday to prepare for disruptions and “difficult times” when the new rules come into effect on Thursday night.
Companies are struggling to digest the details and implications of the 1,240-page agreement sealed by the EU and the UK on Christmas Eve, just a week before the end of the year.
Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 nations, meanwhile, gave unanimous approval to the deal on Monday.
“Green light,” said German spokesman Sebastian Fischer, whose country currently holds the presidency of the EU.
Approval was expected, as all EU leaders were warmly welcomed by the agreement, which aims to place post-Brexit relations between the bloc and the former member of Britain on reliable bases.
The deal, however, did not eliminate the distrust that grew between Britain and its neighbors during months of turbulent negotiations
The French presidency said in a statement that France would remain “from the very first day very vigilant” on the implementation of the agreement, especially to protect French and fishing companies “in case the United Kingdom fails to live up to its commitments”.
The agreement needs the approval of the Parliament of Great Britain, which is due to vote on Wednesday, and the EU legislature, which is not expected to take over the agreement for weeks. The leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups said they would not seek full approval until March, due to the specific and far-reaching implications of the agreement. The great expectation is that EU lawmakers will approve the agreement.
The UK left the EU almost a year ago, but remained within the bloc’s economic embrace during a transition period that ends at midnight in Brussels time – 11pm in London – on 31 December.
The agreement, signed after more than nine months of tense negotiations, will ensure that Britain and the bloc of 27 countries can continue to trade products without tariffs or quotas. This should help protect the 660 billion pounds ($ 894 billion) in annual trade between the two sides and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on it.
But the end of Britain’s accession to the EU’s vast single market and customs union will still bring inconvenience and new expenses for individuals and businesses – from the need for tourists to have travel insurance to the millions of new customs declarations that companies will have. to fill out.
“I am sure there will be difficult times, but we are there to try to do everything in our power to smooth the way,” Michael Gove, the British Cabinet Minister responsible for Brexit preparations, told the BBC.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s conservative government argues that any short-term interruption of Brexit will be worth it, because the UK will now be free to define its own rules and make new trade deals around the world.
However, an ominous prediction of what could happen if UK-EU trade faced severe restrictions came this month, when France briefly closed its border with Britain because of a new highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus that sweeps London and the south of England. Thousands of trucks were stuck in traffic jams or parked in an abandoned airfield near Dover harbor on the English Channel for days and supermarkets have warned that some products, including fresh produce, would soon run out.
Even after France relented and agreed to allow truck drivers with a negative test for the virus, the accumulation of 15,000 drivers who now needed tests took days to resolve.
Despite the agreement, uncertainty hangs over large parts of the relationship between Britain and the EU. The deal covers trade in goods, but leaves the UK’s huge financial services sector in limbo, still uncertain how easily it will be able to do business with the bloc after January 1. The British territory of Gibraltar, which sees thousands of workers crossing Spain every day, is also in limbo since it was not included in the deal.
“This is not a final deal that is closed in many ways,” said Jill Rutter, from the UK, in a changing Europe think tank, noting that big decisions in many areas are yet to come.
And the deal angered a sector that the UK government has promised to protect: fishing. The economically minor but extremely symbolic issue of fishing rights was an obstacle in the negotiations, with EU maritime nations seeking to maintain access to the waters of the United Kingdom, and Britain insisting that it must control its seas.
According to the agreement, the EU will give up a quarter of the quota it catches in UK waters, far less than the 80% initially required by Britain. The system will be implemented over 5 ½ years, after which quotas will be reevaluated.
“I’m angry, disappointed and betrayed,” said Andrew Locker, president of Britain’s National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations. “Boris Johnson has promised us the rights of all fish that swim in our exclusive economic zone and we have a fraction of that.”
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Casert reported from Brussels. Geir Moulson in Berlin and Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.
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