UK warns of ‘bumpy’ period after Brexit
First came the Brexit trade deal – now comes the red tape and the institutional nitty-gritty. The British government is warning businesses to get ready for disruptions and ‘‘bumpy moments’’ when the new rules take effect on Friday.
Firms are scrambling to digest the details and implications of the 1240-page deal sealed by the European Union and the United Kingdom on Christmas Eve.
Ambassadors from the 27 EU nations, meanwhile, gave their unanimous approval to the deal yesterday.
The agreement has not eliminated the mistrust that festered between Britain and its neighbours during months of fractious negotiations. The French presidency said France would remain ‘‘from the very first day very vigilant’’ about the implementation of the deal, especially to protect French companies and fisheries ‘‘in case the UK disregards its commitments’’.
The agreement needs approval from Britain’s Parliament, which was scheduled to vote on it overnight, and from the EU’s legislature, which is not expected to take up the deal for weeks.
The leaders of the European Parliament’s political groups said they would not seek full approval until March because of the specific and far-reaching implications of the agreement. The overwhelming expectation is that EU lawmakers will approve the deal.
‘‘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,’’ Michael Gove, the British cabinet minister in charge of Brexit preparations, 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 be free to set its own rules and strike new trade deals.
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 southern England. Thousands of trucks were stuck in traffic jams or parked near the English Channel port of Dover for days, and supermarkets warned that some goods would soon run short.
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.
The deal has also angered one sector that the British government vowed to protect: fishing.
The economically minor but hugely symbolic issue of fishing rights was a sticking point in negotiations. Under the deal, the EU will give up a quarter of the quota it catches in British waters, far less than the 80 per cent Britain initially demanded.
‘‘I am angry, disappointed and betrayed,’’ said Andrew Locker, chairman of Britain’s National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations. ‘‘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.’’