Britain and EU reach landmark deal
Terms set for new relationship; needs lawmakers’ OK
Britain and the European Union struck a hardfought trade agreement Thursday, settling a bitter divorce that stretched over more than four years and setting the terms for a post-brexit future as close neighbors living apart.
The deal, which must be ratified by the British and European parliaments, came together in Brussels after 11 months of grinding negotiations, culminating in a last-minute haggle over fishing rights that stretched into Christmas Eve, just a week before a year-end deadline.
Despite running to thousands of pages, the agreement leaves critical parts of the relationship to be worked out later. And it will not prevent some disruption to trade across the English Channel, since British exports will still be subjected to some border checks, adding costs for companies and causing potential delays at ports.
But it is nonetheless a landmark in the longrunning Brexit drama — the bookend to Britain’s departure from the European Union in January and a blueprint for how the two sides will co-exist after severing deep ties built over a 47-year relationship. A failure to come to terms could have left Britain and the European Union in a bitter standoff, poisoning relations for years to come.
“It was a long and winding road, but we have got a good deal to show for it,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm. “This moment marks the end of a long voyage.”
If approved, the agreement will take effect on Jan. 1, 4 ½ years after a narrow majority of people in Britain voted to leave the European Union, plunging the country into rancorous debate and political divisions over how to do it.
Until the end of this year, Britain had agreed to continue abiding by most of the rules and regulations of the European Union while negotiators hashed out new arrangements to govern a vast cross-channel trade, valued at more than $900 billion in 2019, free of tariffs and quotas.
For Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, who won a landslide election victory in 2019 vowing to “get Brexit done,” the deal allows him to fulfill that promise. He sounded triumphant when speaking shortly after the announcement. “We’ve taken back control of our laws and our destiny,” he said.
“For the first time since 1973,” Johnson said, “we will be an independent coastal nation with full control of our own waters.”
But to get there, the prime minister had to make significant concessions, especially on rules that cover state aid to businesses and European rights to continue fishing in those waters.
Britain will subscribe to “level playing field” principles, hewing closely to European Union standards and regulations for the foreseeable future. Should disputes arise, they will be settled through arbitration rather than the automatic penalties that the European Union had been demanding.
The European Court of Justice, anathema to Brexiteers, will have no role.
In fishing, the last issue to be resolved and the most politically sensitive, the sides agreed on a 25 percent reduction in quotas for European Union nations to be phased in over 5 ½ years. Britain had been pressing for a three-year transition, the bloc for 14 years.
The deal does not cover services, such as London’s mighty finance sector, which account for about 80 percent of the British economy.
And in a blow to young people in Britain and across Europe, Johnson said Thursday that the country would no longer participate in the Europewide Erasmus exchange program, a scheme that has allowed students to travel abroad for study, work experience and apprenticeships since 1987.