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The European Union and the United Kingdom have released the full text of the Brexit trade deal, and the document is over 1,200 pages long.
Negotiations to finalize a Brexit trade deal were completed on Christmas Eve, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, described the deal as fair, balanced and correct.
The deal will preserve Britain’s access to zero tariffs and zero quotas to the 450-million-consumer bloc’s single market, but will not prevent pain and economic disruption for the UK or EU member states.
Many aspects of Britain’s future relationship with the EU remain to be resolved, possibly for years.
The UK formally left the EU on January 31, but has since been in a transition period in which trade, travel and business rules remained unchanged until the end of this year.
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The British Parliament will debate and vote on the deal on December 30, just one day before the transition period expires.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged that “the devil is in the details,” but insisted the deal will withstand scrutiny by the Brexiteers European Investigation Group (ERG), which will convene a panel of lawyers to examine the full text. .
His message to Conservative MPs came as all 27 EU member states indicated that they will formally back the deal the UK agreed with Brussels officials in a few days.
The EU ambassadors were briefed on the content of the agreement by the EU’s main Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier.
After a very unusual meeting on Christmas Day, with at least one diplomat in a Santa hat and another in a festive sweater, they agreed to write to the European Parliament to say that they intend to make a decision on the provisional application of the agreement. .
The deal covers trade worth around £ 660bn and means that the goods can be sold without tariffs or quotas on the EU market.
The proportion of fish in British waters that the UK can catch will increase from about half now to two thirds by the end of the five and a half year transition.
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