BREXIT: UK, EU Reach Trade Deal
Prime Minister Boris Johnson: “We have taken back control.”
The United Kingdom and the European Union have agreed on a trade deal just days ahead of the Brexit deadline. Britain is finally on the path to leaving the 27-member European bloc on December 31.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson hailed the deal as a major victory, claiming that Britons “have taken back control” almost four and a half years after the national referendum.
The deal is done. pic.twitter.com/zzhvxOSeWz
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) December 24, 2020
Nigel Farage, the leading Brexit campaigner, who often criticized PM Johnson and the Conservative party for their handling of the Brexit negotiations, appears to have endorsed the deal. “The war is over” he said, signaling his support for the arrangement.
The leader of UK’s main opposition Labour Party, Keir Starmer, also voiced support for the agreement, calling it a “tough but necessary decision.”
The BBC reported the finalizing of the deal:
The EU and UK have reached a post-Brexit trade deal, ending months of disagreements over fishing rights and future business rules.
At a Downing Street press conference, 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”.
The UK is set to exit EU trading rules next Thursday – a year after officially leaving the 27 nation bloc.
It will mean big changes for business, with the UK and EU forming two separate markets, and the end of free movement.
German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle covered the initial EU reaction:
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said that the UK and the EU will continue cooperating on areas of mutual interest, naming climate, energy, security and intelligence and transport. (…)
The French politician and chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that the EU “will be alongside European fishermen to support them,” and promised that the deal provides ” a basis for reciprocal access to water and resources, with a new distribution of quotas and fishing opportunities.” Fisheries had been a key sticking point throughout Brexit talks.
On trade, Barnier said that: “there will be some real changes ahead from January 1 for a lot of citizens and a lot of businesses. That is the consequence of Brexit.”
There will be free trade without tariffs between the UK and the EU. A new set of rules named “the level playing field,” will “be the mark for the EU for all agreements regarding free trade,” Barnier told the press conference.
French President Emmanuel Macron saw the agreement as a win for the EU. “The unity and strength of Europe paid off,” he reacted.
Germany, the leading European power behind the EU, is yet to fully endorse the deal. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she will go through the details before backing the deal.
“The federal government will now closely examine the text of the agreement. But we are not starting at zero. The Commission has kept the member states in the loop during the entirely negotiation process,” she said.
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Comments
Will the Brit’s appreciate it as much as we appreciate July 4th?
I don’t know about the level of appreciation, but I think it is a safe bet a higher percentage of them will know what it is about than we in the U.S. know of the reason for the 4th of July. I don’t want to watch another year’s worth of student-on-the-street interviews asking clueless collegians about it.
They should.
Its pretty split, half think Brexit is the greatest thing ever. The other half think it’s a pretty bad idea but have accepted it.
Getting rid of the EU has been more difficult than getting rid of an antibiotic resistant STD.
So, have the folks on the continent agreed to driving on the left side of the road?
No worries, they always give grizzlies the right of way.
I wonder about that “level playing field.” This deal strikes me as some kind of seedy sell out. The only good deal was a no-deal Brexit. I’m surprised Farage is signing off. We’ll see what happens when he reads the fine print.
On the fisheries angle, Britain took it on the nose. The EU clearly won that argument. And, if a British complaint was that they were sick of EU regulatory meddling, well, they’re about to get even more of it.
This is Boris wearing his Bill Barr cap.
The EU had the stronger negotiating position. It was pretty inevitable. The consequences of a no deal during the current pandemic would have been pretty terrible.
It would be better with a Trump America for Britain than a Sundowner/ Harris administration
And the rest of the free world, but Harris/Bi-Gone only plays with communists and other dictatorships… common ground.
Absent actually reading the Brexit agreement I’ll assume Johnson has sold out the UK on every concession and point the EU was demanding. Complete and utter capitulation to EU demands. That’s the only way the EU would ever come to any “agreement” with the UK.(And you can bet they didn’t do it for any “humanitarian” reasons either. The cynics in control of the EU would never allow that to enter any negotiations.)
That is my assumption as well.
The deal as currently understood is something if a compromise. The detail isn’t well understood yet. In principle the EU have come out better on trade issues but the red lines drawn by BJ re sovereignty have been reasonable well adhered too. Its a poor deal but better than no deal. That may change once a fuller analysis comes out on each specific point.