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LONDON: The UK is poised for a new chapter on Friday (December 25) after securing a hard-fought post-Brexit trade deal with the European Union as EU envoys awaited a briefing on a deal reached only after months of tortuous negotiations.
The country will now not fall off a trade “cliff edge” on January 1, avoiding a mountain of tariffs and quotas.
But major changes are inevitable, as Britain leaves the EU single market for good and free movement with the bloc comes to an end after almost half a century of integration.
The UK had been in a stalled transition period, still bound by the bloc’s rules since it formally left the EU on January 31.
Standing in front of a Downing Street Christmas tree in a video message Thursday night, Prime Minister Boris Johnson bragged the hundreds of pages of text as “a” good deal for all of Europe “and a” gift “for Britain.
The speech was “a victory speech,” Anand Menon, UK director in a Changing Europe think tank, told AFP.
“Boris Johnson was elected prime minister to achieve Brexit, now he definitely achieved Brexit,” Menon said.
Johnson has come under heavy criticism for his handling of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, which has so far left nearly 70,000 dead, the highest death toll in Europe.
In recent days, thousands of trucks have been backed up at Channel ports after France and other European partners blocked the crossings over growing cases of a new variant of the virus believed to spread faster.
Some pointed out that the transport chaos, which sparked fears of a shortage of fresh produce, could be a glimpse of what the country can expect if it exits the EU single market without a deal.
FISHERMEN’S FEARS
The EU has offered Britain unprecedented tariff and quota-free access to its single market of 450 million consumers.
But in return, he has secured London’s commitment to abide by its ever-evolving rules in some areas such as environmental protection, labor regulation and tax, with the aim of preventing Britain from undermining businesses within the bloc.
The UK is also committed to ensuring that it will not abuse state aid to businesses to seek an unfair advantage.
The fish issue emerged as the latest hurdle this week as London lobbied to reduce the share of EU fishing fleets in the estimated annual set of € 650 million (586 million pounds, US $ 790 million) by more than one third.
European Union ambassadors met to carefully study the text of the Brexit agreement on Christmas Day. (Photo: AFP / Olivier Hoslet)
The final agreement established a 25 percent cut to be phased in over a five-and-a-half-year period.
EU officials have vowed to support their fisheries sector through painful cuts, one of the main downsides of a deal that European Commission Director Ursula von der Leyen generally called “fair and balanced”.
With the agreement now shared with the 27 member countries of the bloc, its ambassadors will meet in Brussels on Christmas Day.
They are expected to take two to three days to analyze the agreement and decide whether to approve its provisional implementation.
‘RELIEF INSTEAD OF CELEBRATION’
For Britain, “that an agreement has been reached is in many respects a remarkable achievement,” judged the Times newspaper.
However, the final package is “a source of relief rather than celebration,” he added, with new restrictions including an end to free movement in the UK for European workers and in the EU for British workers.
Young people will be affected by Britain’s withdrawal from the Erasmus student exchange program, which spans the entire continent, to be replaced by a local scheme named after pioneering computer scientist Alan Turing.
“The deal is not the end of the process. Now that (Johnson) has delivered on his promise to achieve Brexit, his challenge is to achieve it,” the Times warned.
Fish was one of the most difficult sectors for Britain and the EU to close a post-Brexit deal. (Photo: AFP / Glyn Kirk)
The left-leaning Guardian was more severe, saying “Johnson deserves no credit for dodging a calamity that was coming so close because he drove so enthusiastically towards it.”
In fact, the newspaper added, the deal “prescribes an immediate downgrade for the UK economy.”
British MPs will debate the text of the deal on Wednesday, but there is little doubt that it will be approved after the opposition Labor Party pledged its backing.
On the European side, the provisional approval of national capitals must be followed by a vote in the European Parliament in early 2021.
