Brexit: UK enters ‘new chapter’ outside European Union as transition period ends
The end of the transition period, four-and-a-half years after a majority in the UK voted to quit the European Union, is a significant moment in the nation’s history. After almost five decades as part of the bloc, the UK will now forge a separate path.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Thursday that Britain will be an “open, generous, outward-looking, internationalist and free trading” country that is “free to do things differently, and if necessary better” than the EU.
“We have our freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it,” Johnson said during his New Year’s address, just hours before the end of the transition period.
Opening the debate on the bill Wednesday, Johnson told members of Parliament that the deal would “open a new chapter” and allow the UK to take “control of our laws and our national destiny.”
But critics warn that the UK economy will suffer as a result of Brexit, with many businesses unprepared for the changes ahead, particularly coming as the nation staggers under the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Now the UK has left the single market and customs union, goods crossing the border will be subject to customs and other checks. Delays and disruption could occur as hauliers discover they lack the correct paperwork, or that new software systems collapse under pressure.
Keir Starmer, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, last week warned that “there are serious questions about the government’s preparedness for the new arrangements” after the negotiations went down to the wire.
He told Labour lawmakers to support the bill rather than risk the “devastating” consequences of the UK crashing out of the EU with no trade deal. But Starmer said the “thin agreement” reached by Johnson’s government “does not provide adequate protection for British manufacturing, our financial services, creative industries, or workplace rights.”
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said in a tweet, sent as the clock struck 11 p.m. UK time, that Scotland will be “back soon, Europe.” Scots voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum and Brexit has injected new energy into the fight for Scottish independence.
The EU-UK trade deal did not cover Gibraltar, the Overseas British Territory that lies on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula.
Only hours before the transition deadline expired Thursday, Spain and the UK announced that a separate draft agreement had been reached on its post-Brexit status.
‘Time to put Brexit behind us’
The European Parliament is expected to examine the deal at a later date before it can be formally ratified by the European Union.
The deal agreed with Brussels sets out a new business and security relationship with the UK’s biggest trading partner. It was finally nailed down after months of deadlock over areas such as fishing quotas, how the UK would use state aid to support British businesses post-Brexit, and legal oversight of any deal struck.
The agreement, which preserves Britain’s tariff- and quota-free access to the bloc’s consumers, spares the UK some of the most dire potential consequences from Brexit as it battles a crippling pandemic.
The deal also appears to mostly cover trade in goods, where the UK has a deficit with its EU neighbors, but excludes key service industries like finance, where it currently enjoys a surplus.
Muted celebrations
Some UK newspaper front pages sounded a triumphal note Thursday despite the potentially rocky road ahead.
“Britain FINALLY free from the EU” said the Daily Express, while The Times of London declared “It’s goodbye to all that as Brexit trade deal signed.”
But soaring rates of coronavirus infections may put paid to any Brexit supporters’ hopes of celebrating the end of the transition period on Britain’s streets.
More than three-quarters of…
Read More:Brexit: UK enters ‘new chapter’ outside European Union as transition period ends