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WLess than a week before the end of the Brexit transition phase, Britain and the EU published their laboriously negotiated trade pact for the later time. Both parties put the 1,250-page document online on their websites on Boxing Day. The contract aims to regulate issues related to trade, cooperation between the police and the judiciary and the protection of medical insurance for travelers in emergency situations.
London and Brussels announced a breakthrough in talks on a joint trade pact on Christmas Eve in the best German Christmas gifts. At the end of the year, the UK finally leaves the structures of the European Union after almost 40 years of membership. This avoids the worst consequences of divorce.
In the “moment of sleep after the Christmas meal”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had previously recommended the treaty to his compatriots as a Christmas reading. If you want to read something in this “moment of sleep after the Christmas meal,” he recommends reading the commercial pact, he said in a Christmas video message posted on Twitter.
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister of Great Britain, applauds after the agreement reached in the Brexit negotiations.
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Image: dpa
It is doubtful that Johnson has read it himself. Because the prime minister said there would be no non-tariff trade barriers. This is exactly what businesses on both sides of the English Channel should prepare for in a few days. This means, for example, different standards for product safety and food safety. The rules remain the same on both sides, but British companies will still have to demonstrate compliance with European standards in the future.
France has already announced that it will insist on comprehensive controls from the turn of the year. “We have to control the British products that come to us,” said Secretary of State for Europe, Clément Beaune, on Friday on channel Europe 1. Food or industrial products must comply with all applicable regulations. The French state recruited some 1,300 people to guarantee these controls.
France is a major hub for British products. Around 70 per cent of the trade volume between Britain and the EU passes through the ports of Calais and Dunkirk in northern France and the Eurotunnel, as reported by the prefecture of the Hauts-de-France region in the north from France.
The chaos that arises when traffic no longer flows unhindered through this important axis has been observed since the fourth weekend of Advent in the English border region of Kent – after France temporarily closed the borders due to a variant of Possibly highly contagious coronavirus discovered in Britain. Miles of traffic jams with thousands of trucks. The drivers had to stay in their taxis for days.
Indeed a new customs border
As of January 2021, customs procedures would also have to be complied with, emphasized Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), a state company that provides information on foreign markets, among other things. As Britain is abandoning the domestic market and customs union, a new customs border will come into effect, said Stefanie Eich, a customs expert at GTAI. For EU products destined for the UK market, it must be proven in future that they actually originate from the EU. “The rules of origin for individual products are set out in the agreement. Compliance with these must be demonstrated accordingly ”, says the expert.
On the European side, there is no longer enough time until December 31 to ratify the last minute agreement in time. Therefore, the contract can initially only be applied provisionally. However, this still needs the approval of the 27 EU countries. The EU ambassadors should vote on this in the coming days, a meeting is scheduled for Monday. Then the EU Parliament has to look back at the deal in January. In London, on the other hand, parliament must pass a law on December 30 to make the deal effective. Given that the opposition British Labor Party has announced that it will approve the deal, the vote in London is seen as a formality.
However, Prime Minister Johnson tried over the holidays to align arch-conservative Brexiters within his own ranks, who are threatening a rebellion. The contract was “the right deal for Britain,” he said according to the PA news agency in WhatsApp messages to his friends at the party. It will allow the country to deliver on its Brexit promises and regain control of its own borders, laws and funds. Furthermore, the agreement is the basis for a long-term friendly relationship with the EU as a sovereign and equal partner.
British fishing associations have already criticized the negotiated transition phase, in which EU fishers initially only have to give up a quarter of their previous fishing quotas in British waters, as a defeat. A senior representative of the UK negotiating team said on Saturday that the fishery must be compromised. However, both parties have done so, and the main thing is for the UK to return to “full control of our waters” at the end of the five-and-a-half-year transition period, the negotiator said. If London further restricts access later, Brussels could respond with fees.
