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The UK stopped following EU rules as of 11pm on Thursday. The new treaty went into effect in its place. From now on, the new agreement will allow the EU to carry out other activities, such as travel, trade, immigration and security cooperation with the United Kingdom.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “UK independence is in our hands. The long Brexit process is over and we can do our job differently and better.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said the UK will remain “friends and allies”.
UK ministers, however, have warned of some confusion over the new rules in the coming days or weeks.
The UK officially seceded from the EU on January 31, 2020, almost three and a half years after the historic 2016 referendum in favor of Brexit.
But for the past 11 months, the two sides have been at odds over failing to reach a trade deal. But in the end they were able to reach an agreement on the future economic and trade partnership.
On December 24, the ambassadors of the 28 EU member states unanimously approved the EU-UK trade agreement. Later, senior EU officials formally signed the agreement.
The deal was quickly approved by a vote of 521 to 63 in the lower house of the UK Parliament, the House of Commons, on Wednesday. From there, after the final approval of the agreement in the upper house of the House of Lords, the Queen also accepted it and it became law.
Under the new agreement, goods produced in the UK will have the opportunity to enter the EU internal market duty free. That means paying any tax on imports of goods between the UK and the EU.
But this does not mean that UK citizens will not need the same paperwork for business needs or traveling to EU countries as before. Instead, they will need more paperwork from now on. There is still uncertainty about the rules for banking and other services. These two sectors play an important role in the UK economy.
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