UK: ‘Bumpy’ post-Brexit transition despite deal

Businesses scramble to understand details and implications

LONDON — First came the Brexit trade deal. Now comes the red tape and the institutional nitty-gritty.

Four days after sealing a free trade agreement with the European Union, the British government warned businesses Monday to get ready for disruptions and “bumpy moments” when the new rules take effect Thursday night.

Firms are scrambling to digest the details and implications of the 1,240-page deal sealed by the EU and the U.K. on Christmas Eve, just a week before the year-end deadline.

Ambassadors from the 27 EU nations, meanwhile, gave their unanimous approval to the deal Monday.

“Green light,” said German spokesman Sebastian Fischer, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

The approval had been expected, since all EU leaders have warmly welcomed the deal, which is designed to put post-Brexit relations between the bloc and former member Britain on reliable footing.

The agreement needs approval from Britain’s Parliament, which is scheduled to vote Wednesday, 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.

The U.K. 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 p.m. in London — on Thursday.

The agreement, hammered out after more than 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 $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 expense 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.

“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 U.K. will now be free to set its own rules and strike new trade deals around the world.

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 U.K.’s huge financial services sector in limbo, still uncertain how easily it can do business with the bloc after Jan. 1.