Now the hard part: Trade talks loom for UK, EU after Brexit

LONDON — If you thought the battle over the U.K.’s departure from the European Union was painful, wait until you see what comes next.

While Britain left the EU on Friday night, the work of building a new economic relationship has just begun. There are tough negotiations ahead as the U.K. goes its own way while trying to preserve links with its biggest trading partner, covering everything from tariffs and product standards to British industry’s ability to recruit foreign workers and the EU’s access to U.K. fishing grounds.

“There’s a massive agenda to be agreed: trade in goods, trade in services, data protection, security cooperation, aviation, road haulage, fishing, you know the list is endless,” said Jill Rutter, a senior research fellow at U.K. in a Changing Europe, a think tank that studies Britain’s relations with the now 27-nation bloc. “It is unprecedented.”

For now, little has changed. The two sides agreed on a transition period that keeps current rules and regulations in effect until Dec. 31. But that gives the U.K. government just 11 months to negotiate a comprehensive trade deal that could decide the prospects of British businesses for decades to come. The EU accounted for 54% of Britain’s imports and 43% of its exports in 2016, according to the Office for National Statistics.

French President Emmanuel Macron posted a letter on his Facebook page Saturday, addressed to his “dear British friends,” that sought a conciliatory tone.

“Never has France or the French people — or, I think it is fair to say, any European people — been driven by a desire for revenge or punishment,” he said.