Details of the historic free trade agreement between the UK and EU have been published in full, as EU ambassadors began the process of assessing and approving the terms of the deal before the end of the year.
The landmark trade deal, which was announced by UK prime minister Boris Johnson and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Thursday, will come into provisional force on January 1, and is the biggest bilateral trade deal signed by either country, covering trade worth around £660bn.
The deal, which followed nine months of tense negotiations, will guarantee tariff-free trade on most goods and create a platform for future co-operation on issues such as crime-fighting, energy and data sharing. However concerns are emerging surrounding the support for UK businesses, which will have to transition to the new trading arrangement from next week.
The 1,246 page document, which has been categorised into seven parts, has been described by the UK’s chief negotiator David Frost as the beginning of a moment of national renewal, allowing the UK to establish laws on its own terms. This is one of the biggest and broadest agreements ever, Lord Frost added.
In the contentious area of fisheries, the UK will depart from the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy and establish a new identity as a sovereign independent coastal state, according to details published in a separate 34-page summary of the deal. The agreement establishes a five-and-half-year transition period where EU access to UK waters will decline by 25 per cent. After this, the two sides will hold annual quota negotiations.
The deal provides a maximum six-month grace period to continue the exchange of private data flows for UK and EU companies. The arrangement gives time for the EU to grant the UK an adequacy decision that recognises British data protection standards as robust enough to allow EU citizens private information to flow freely to the UK. A senior EU official said the adequacy decision was likely in the coming weeks.
In his Christmas message to the public, Mr Johnson praised the new deal, arguing that it was a deal to give certainty to business, travellers, and all investors in our country. He said that the new arrangement would be the basis of a happy and successful and stable partnership with the EU.
Parliament will be recalled on December 30 to enable MPs to scrutinise the new legislation ahead of the end of the transition period next week.