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Снимка: Geert Vanden Wijngaert / Bloomberg |
The trade deal between the two sides of the English Channel has been long awaited, but the Brexit exit campaign can finally be evaluated on its promises.
In 2016, Vote Leave made a series of promises, suggestions and statements about what would happen if Britain left the EU and negotiated new relations with continental Europe.
After the Brexit process swallowed up the resignations of two prime ministers, Vote Leave finally found itself redesigning the British government’s moves. The campaign’s main figure, Boris Johnson, became prime minister, and its architect, Dominic Cummings, was until this month a senior adviser to the British prime minister. Other top figures like Michael Gove, Gisele Stewart, and numerous lawmakers and aides are now working in or around the Downing Street machine.
In other words, the people who made the promises were the people who were assigned to keep them. And with the trade agreement between the EU and the UK, which has already been agreed, its performance can now be seen.
Here is Politico’s rundown of what was promised and what was provided.
1. Trade with the EU will be tax-free and will involve minimal red tape.
Britain has managed to conclude a duty-free trade agreement with the EU without quotas. But the look comes with numerous conventions and considerable bureaucracy.
There will be new customs processes for carriers transporting goods between the UK and the EU, which means additional documents and checks. Import and export declarations, security declarations and other documents will be required. New infrastructure is being built at the ports to cope with queues and control traffic. There will also be new processes for trade across the Irish Sea, and both countries will need to comply with “rules of origin” procedures that will identify where materials and raw materials come from.
Meanwhile, Britain has signed various agreements to ensure that neither side can undermine the standards of the other – so-called equal terms of business. With regard to state aid, for example, there will be a dispute resolution mechanism and both parties will have the right to unilaterally transfer fees to each other to protect themselves from unfair competition. So the deal is tax free for now.
Vote Leave also promised that companies that do not have a relationship with the single market should not abide by the rules of the single market. The finer details on this front need to be verified in the legal text, which has yet to be published. But at a minimum, Northern Ireland will have to comply with single market rules to ensure that its land border with the Republic of Ireland remains open.
2. The Northern Ireland border “absolutely unchanged”
During a visit to Northern Ireland during the exit referendum, Boris Johnson said the border would remain “absolutely unchanged”.
The British Prime Minister was right that the common travel area between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland would be the same and that the land border would remain open.
But to make sure this is possible in the future, the border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is changing. Customs procedures will be established for goods crossing the Irish Sea, as Northern Ireland will have access to the EU customs union, but will keep it with the UK.
This will include document checks at border checkpoints (though not physically at the border), which will carry out inspections of certain plant and animal products.
3. End of the European Rule of Law and the Court of Justice
Johnson insisted at a press conference Thursday afternoon that the agreement excludes the role of the Court of Justice. It is worth waiting for the legal text of the agreement to be sure if this is the case. But Northern Ireland will remain part of the customs union and will be subject to the rules of the single market under the supervision of the Court. Therefore, it would be wrong to assume that the entire UK will not be subject to European trials.
4. Regain control of immigration and asylum seekers and reduce migration flows to tens of thousands.
Downing Street will implement the long-promised system. This means that free movement with the EU is coming to an end and the citizens of the continent will be treated in the same way as everyone else in the rest of the world.
But Britain is unlikely to cut immigration to tens of thousands, as British Cabinet Minister Michael Gove vowed to allow Brexit. The government has also vowed to take a tougher stance on asylum seekers, as Britain will no longer be legally bound by EU rules.
5. Great Britain will regain control of fisheries
Johnson promised during the referendum campaign that Britain would “regain control” of its waters. The promise was vague, although other representatives of the broader exit campaign, such as Nigel Farage, were clearer about their goals, including the UK to regain “all fisheries resources”.
At the beginning of the talks, Johnson said he insisted that the EU’s access to Britain’s fishing waters be reviewed annually. Finally, the EU approved it, but with a transition period.
The period will last more than five and a half years, during which the EU will have full access to British waters, but will increase the amount of fish that Britain can shoot in the waters shared with the bloc. Negotiations will take place annually, and the EU may retaliate with tariffs if Britain refuses to grant this access. In other words, this promise depends on the definition of the word “control”.
The important detail is exactly how many more fish the UK will catch in the shared waters.
Johnson said Thursday that the amount of fish Britain could catch in its own waters “would increase significantly from around 50% to date to around 66% in five and a half years,” after which it could be reassessed. A person familiar with the details commented that the UK will have a 25 percent share of the current EU quota.
Read the continuation of the material on the Bloomberg TV Bulgaria website.
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