London: First came the Brexit trade deal. Now comes the red tape.
Four days after sealing a free trade agreement with the European Union, the British government warned businesses to get ready for disruptions and “bumpy moments” when the new rules take effect on Thursday night.
Businesses were scrambling Monday to digest the details and implications of the 1,240-page deal sealed by the EU and the UK on Christmas Eve.
The UK left the EU almost a year ago, but remained within the bloc’s economic embrace during a transition period that ends at midnight Brussels time – 11 pm in London – on December 31.
The agreement, hammered out after nine months of tense negotiations, will ensure Britain and the 27-nation bloc can continue to trade in goods without tariffs or quotas.
That should help protect the 660 USD 894 billion in annual trade between the two sides, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that rely on it.
But the end to Britain’s membership in the EU’s vast single market and customs union will still bring inconvenience and new expenses for both individuals and businesses – from the need for tourists to have travel insurance to the millions of new customs declarations that firms will have to fill out.
“Businesses will need to make sure that they’re ready for new customs procedures and we as individuals will need to make sure that our passports are up to date because they need to have at least six months before expiry on them in order to be able to travel abroad,” said Michael Gove, the British Cabinet minister in charge of Brexit preparations.
“I’m sure there will be bumpy moments but we are there in order to try to do everything we can to smooth the path,” he told the BBC.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government argues that any short-term disruption from Brexit will be worth it, because the UK will now be free to set its own rules and strike new trade deals around the world.
Yet an ominous preview of what could happen if UK-EU trade faces heavy restrictions came this month when France briefly closed its border with Britain because of a highly transmissible new variant of the coronavirus sweeping through London and southern England.
Thousands of trucks were stuck in traffic jams or parked at a disused airfield near the English Channel port of Dover for days and supermarkets warned that some goods, including fresh produce would soon run short.
Even after France relented and agreed to let in truckers who tested negative for the virus, the backlog of 15,000 drivers who now needed tests took days to clear.
Both the British and European parliaments still need to vote on the Brexit trade deal. Britain’s Parliament is set to deliver its verdict on Dec. 30, but the EU legislature will not make a decision until after January 1.
Ambassadors from the 27 EU nations will meet Monday to determine how they can provisionally approve the deal by the end of the year.
David McAllister, an EU lawmaker from Germany, said the European Parliament vote would take place in February. He signalled it was likely to be approved, calling it a “comprehensive, fair agreement” that protected the bloc’s single market.
Lawmakers in Britain are also highly likely to approve the deal.
Hardline pro-Brexit legislators in Johnson’s Conservative Party are poring over the agreement to see whether it meets their goal of a decisive break from the bloc. The main opposition Labour Party says the deal will hurt Britain’s economy but it will back it anyway because it is better than a chaotic no-deal split on January 1.
Despite the deal, uncertainty hangs over huge chunks of the relationship between Britain and the EU. The agreement covers trade in goods, but leaves the UK’s huge financial services sector in limbo, still uncertain how easily it can do business with the bloc after January 1. The British territory of Gibraltar, which sees thousands of workers cross over daily from Spain, is also in limbo since it was not included in the deal.
And Brexit deal has angered one of the sectors the government stressed it would protect: fishing. The economically minor but hugely symbolic issue of fishing rights was a sticking point in negotiations, with maritime EU nations seeking to retain access to UK waters, and Britain insisting it must control its seas.
Under the deal, the EU will give up a quarter of the quota it catches in UK waters, far less than the 80 per cent that Britain initially demanded. The system will be phased in over 5 1/2 years, after which the quotas will be reassessed.
“I am angry, disappointed and betrayed,” said Andrew Locker, chairman of Britain’s National Federation of Fishermen’s Organizations.
“Boris Johnson promised us the rights to all the fish that swim in our exclusive economic zone and we have got a fraction of that.”
