The EU and UK have reached a post-Brexit trade deal, ending months of disagreements over fishing rights and future business rules.
At a Downing Street press conference, Boris Johnson said: “We have taken back control of our laws and our destiny.”
The text of the agreement has yet to be released, but the PM claimed it was a “good deal for the whole of Europe”.
The UK is set to exit EU trading rules next Thursday – a year after officially leaving the 27-nation bloc.
It will mean big changes for business, with the UK and EU forming two separate markets, and the end of free movement.
But the trade deal will come as a major relief to many British businesses, already reeling from the impact of coronavirus, who feared disruption at the borders and the imposition of tariffs, or taxes on imports.
As the deal was announced, Mr Johnson – who had repeatedly said the UK would “prosper mightily” without a deal – tweeted a picture of himself smiling with both thumbs lifted in the air.
In a press conference in Brussels, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen said: “This was a long and winding road but we have got a good deal to show for it.”
She said the deal was “fair” and “balanced” and it was now “time to turn the page and look to the future”. The UK “remains a trusted partner,” she added.
At his press conference, Boris Johnson said the £668bn a year agreement would “protect jobs across this country” and “enable UK goods to be sold without tariffs, without quotas in the EU market”.
He acknowledged he had been forced to give ground on his demands on fishing.
“The EU began with I think wanting a transition period of 14 years, we wanted three years, we’ve ended up at five years,” he said.
And he said the UK had not got all it wanted on financial services, a vital part of the UK economy, but he insisted the deal was “nonetheless going to enable our dynamic City of London to get on and prosper as never before”.
Most of the UK – except from Northern Ireland – will no longer participate in the Erasmus student exchange scheme, which Mr Johnson said was because it is “extremely expensive” – but a British option called the Turing Scheme will provide an alternative, he added.
Students in NI will still be able to take part thanks to an arrangement with the Irish government.
The UK’s chief trade negotiator Lord Frost said the full text of the free trade agreement would be published soon.
The UK Parliament will be recalled on 30 December to vote on the deal – it will also need to be ratified by the European Parliament.
Labour to back deal
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer – who campaigned against Brexit – said his party would vote for the deal in the Commons, ensuring it will pass.
He said it was “a thin agreement” that “does not provide adequate protections” for jobs, manufacturing, financial services or workplace rights and “is not the deal the government promised”.
But with no time left to renegotiate, the only choice was between “this deal or no deal,” he added.
No deal would have “terrible consequences for this country and the Labour Party cannot allow that to happen”, said the Labour leader, and that was why he had decided to back it.
The basics
1. A Brexit deal has been agreed, days before a deadline. It means that the UK and the EU can continue to trade without extra taxes being put on goods – but we don’t know all the details yet.
2. What took so long? The UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 and actually left on 31 January 2020, but leaders had until the end of 2020 to work out a trade deal.
3. There are big changes ahead. Although it’s a trade deal that has been agreed, there will also be changes to how people travel between the EU and UK, and to the way they live and work.
‘Against Scotland’s will’
Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford said a deal was better than no deal but criticised the timing just a week before the UK exits the EU single market and customs union.
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “Brexit is happening against Scotland’s will – and there is no deal that will ever make up for what Brexit takes away from us.
“It’s time to chart our own future as an independent, European nation.”
Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin said he would study the text of the deal but added: “From what we have heard today, I believe that it represents a good compromise and a balanced outcome.”
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage – who played a leading role in the campaign to get the UK out of the EU in the 2016 referendum – told the BBC the deal was “far from perfect” and that for fisheries in particular it was a “rotten deal” – but added: “It’s a lot better off than we were five years ago.”
One fishing industry representative said the UK had made “significant concessions on fish”, and “there will be a lot of disappointed and frustrated fishermen tonight”.
“There will certainly be those that see this as selling out “, said Barrie Deas, the head of the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations.
Negotiations in Brussels went down to the wire over what EU fishing boats are allowed to catch in UK waters. Fishing makes up just 0.12% of the UK’s economy.
Source: BBC
