(Newswire.net — December 24, 2020) —
The United Kingdom has managed to come to an agreement on a trade deal with the European Union on Christmas eve, just a week before the Brexit transitional period ends.
Boris Johnson announced “The Deal is done,” and posed while giving two thumbs up from his residence in Downing Street where he was in talks on the phone with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Comission.
UK was set to leave the customs union on December 31, but now the new trade deal will allow the tariff free trade of goods with the rest of the old continent. Both police and judicial cooperation are covered as part of the 2000 page trade deal. Goods traded between the UK and EU in 2019 were worth 668 billion pounds, or 900 billion USD.
Ursula von der Leyen said about the deal “We now have a fair and balanced agreement with the UK. It will protect our EU interests and ensure fair competition,” calling it “a deal worth fighting for.”
The United Kingdom left the European Union in January and had until the end of the year to achieve a trade agreement with Brussels. For most of the year there was no development of the deal since there were three main points of contention: equality of rights, fishing and control of UK waters
Since then the UK has retained the benefit of single market trade with the EU, and British citizens were free to travel the European continent.
Following the announcement of the trade deal, the draft treaty was sent to the 27 member states of the European Union, and application of the agreement would start on January 1, pending approval of the British parliament, the EU parliament and the member states.
Nigel Farage, former Brexit party leader called the trade deal “not perfect, but it is a big moment” and said that he would vote for the deal adding “There is no going back.”