First, there was 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 has warned companies to prepare for disruptions and “difficult times” when the new rules come into effect on Thursday night.
The companies struggled on Monday to digest the details and implications of the 1,240-page deal sealed by the EU and the UK on Christmas Eve.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at a press conference in London’s Downing Street on December 24. (AP)
BORIS JOHNSON SAYS THE UK ‘RETURNED CONTROL’ AFTER SECURING THE POST-BREXIT BUSINESS
EU ambassadors, for their part, gave unanimous approval on Monday to Brexit’s trade agreement with the United Kingdom’s Germany, which holds the EU presidency, said the decision came during a meeting to evaluate the deal the day before. from Christmas.
“Green light,” said Germany spokesman Sebastian Fischer.
Approval was expected since all EU leaders welcomed it warmly. He still needs approval from the EU legislature, due in February. The UK House of Commons is expected to approve it on Wednesday.
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 nine months of tense negotiations, will ensure that Britain and the 27-nation bloc can continue to trade products without tariffs or quotas. This should help protect the $ 894 billion in annual trade between the two sides and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on it.
A colleague wears a Christmas hat while the European Union’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, in the center, carries a briefcase from Brexit’s trade deal during a special Coreper meeting at the European Council building in Brussels on 25 December. (AP)
UNITED KINGDOM RESTRICTION PROMOTIONS ON ‘HEALTHY FOODS’ IN SUPERMARKETS, RETAILERS LOOKING FOR FIGHT AGAINST OBESITY
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.
“Companies need to make sure they are ready for new customs procedures and we, as individuals, need to make sure that our passports are up to date because they need to be at least six months old before they expire to be able to travel abroad,” he said. Michael Gove, the British minister in charge of Brexit preparations.
“I am sure there will be difficult times, but we are there to try to do everything we can to smooth the way,” he told the BBC.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s conservative government argues that any short-term interruption of Brexit will be worthwhile 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 warned that some products, including fresh produce, would soon be in short supply.
BRITISH GOVERNMENT PLANS TO APPROVE THE OXFORD VACCINE, DISTRIBUTE FROM JAN. 4
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.
Pro-Brexit hardliners in the Johnson Conservative Party are studying the deal to see if it fulfills its goal of a decisive break with the bloc. The main opposition party, the Labor Party, says the deal will hurt Britain’s economy, but it will support it anyway, because it is better than a chaotic split without a deal on January 1.
Despite the agreement, uncertainty hangs over large parts of the relationship between Britain and the EU. The deal covers the commodity trade, but leaves the UK’s huge financial services sector in limbo, still uncertain as to 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, as it was not included in the deal.
And the Brexit deal angered one of the sectors the government emphasized it would 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.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
According to the agreement, the EU will give up a quarter of the quota it catches in UK waters, far less than the 80% that the UK initially required. 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.”