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LONDON: Britain closed a close Brexit trade deal with the European Union on Thursday, just seven days before exiting one of the world’s largest trading blocs in its most significant global shift since the loss of the empire.
The deal means it has veered from a chaotic ending to a tortuous divorce that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War II.
“The deal is done,” said a Downing Street source.
“We have regained control of our money, borders, laws, commerce and our fishing waters …
“We have delivered this great deal for the whole of the UK in record time and under extremely challenging conditions … all of our key red lines on the return of sovereignty have been achieved.”
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said that the agreement was fair, balanced and correct.
While the last-minute deal avoids the bitter end of the saga on January 1, the UK is ready for a much more distant relationship with its biggest trading partner than almost anyone expected at the time of the 2016 referendum.
A deal seemed imminent for almost a day, until haggling over the amount of fish EU vessels should be able to catch in British waters delayed the announcement of one of the most important trade deals in recent European history.
The UK formally left the EU on January 31, but has since been in a transition period under which rules on trade, travel and business remained unchanged until the end of this year.
If the parties have reached an agreement of zero tariffs and zero quotas, it will help smooth trade in goods that accounts for half of its $ 900 billion in annual trade.
He will also support peace in Northern Ireland, a priority for US President-elect Joe Biden, who warned Johnson that he must abide by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.
Even with a deal, the halt from January 1 is certain, when Britain ends its often strained 48-year relationship with a Franco-German-led project that sought to unite the ruined nations of post-German Europe. World War II into a global power.
After months of talks that were at times undermined by both Covid-19 and rhetoric from London and Paris, the leaders of the 27 EU member states have projected a deal as a way to avoid the nightmare of a “no exit”. agreement”.
But Europe’s second-largest economy will continue to abandon both the EU’s single market of 450 million consumers, which the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher helped create, and its customs union.
