LONDON – Britain and the European Union yesterday published the full text of a post-Brexit trade agreement aimed at governing their relationship when the country definitively leaves the bloc’s single market in less than a week.
The document, which is more than 1,200 pages long, lays out detail on trade, law enforcement and dispute settlement, among other arrangements, after the United Kingdom exits the single market and customs union on December 31.
Despite the complexity of the document, which includes explanatory notes and side agreements on nuclear cooperation and the exchange of classified information, both sides have indicated they will rush through the adoption.
However, with fishing rights being one of the final sticking points in the negotiations, a UK fishing industry body condemned the deal as “paltry”.
David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, told reporters yesterday that the deal is “one of the biggest and broadest agreements ever, covering not just trading goods, but services, aviation, road transport, social security, health cooperation, law enforcement”.
“This should be the beginning of a moment of national renewal for us,” he said, reiterating that the agreement allows Britain to leave the single market and customs union without aligning with the EU and European Court of Justice.
UK ‘compromises’
As he tweeted out the 1,246-word agreement, which had been announced on Thursday after fraught negotiations that went right down to the wire, Frost’s EU counterpart, Michel Barnier, called the accord “the result of many months of intensive and dedicated work”.
In the foreword to the copy of the text published by the UK government, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the agreement had been “carefully judged to benefit everyone” and preserve “free trade for millions of people in the UK and across Europe”.
“While we made our fair share of compromises during the negotiations, we never wavered from the goal of restoring national sovereignty.”
Senior UK Minister Michael Gove wrote in The Times newspaper that the deal will allow Britain to bring “innovation and investment to parts of the country that have endured economic decline”.
He added that there are still “significant changes” to be prepared for by businesses in the short term.
‘Sacrifice fishing’
But, Britain’s fishing industry has expressed bitter disappointment, saying a five-year transition period when EU fleets will have free access to fish in UK waters, including up to 9.6km off the shoreline, is “pathetic”.
“In the end, it was clear that Boris Johnson wanted an overall trade deal and was willing to sacrifice fishing,” said Barrie Deas, chief executive of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations.
A senior member of the UK’s negotiating team conceded that it would have been better to get to the end of the new fisheries transition period “a bit faster”, but added that “at the end of the transition, it returns to normal arrangements, and we have full control over our waters”.
Britain’s Parliament has been recalled to sit on December 30 so lawmakers can ratify the deal. A vote in favour is virtually assured after the UK’s main opposition Labour Party said its MPs will back it.
In a bid to unify his own Conservatives around the deal, Johnson has insisted that the accord will stand up to scrutiny by the European Research Group, a core group of Eurosceptic lawmakers in his party.
In Brussels, the European Commission has proposed that the agreement be applied on a provisional basis until February 28.
The European Parliament will be asked for its consent to the deal in 2021, and for the process to be concluded, the Council, which brings together the executives of all 27 member states, must adopt the decision.
The bloc’s member states have indicated that they will formally back the deal within a matter of days.
On Friday, EU ambassadors were briefed on the contents of the deal by Barnier, where they agreed to write to the European Parliament of their intention to take a decision on the provisional application of the agreement. – AFP, December 27, 2020
