12.28.20 - Britain and the European Union struck a hard-fought trade agreement on Thursday, finally formally ending a bitter divorce that had started in 2016 and setting the terms for what a post-Brexit future will look like.
The agreement leaves many important aspects of the relations to be fully worked out and agreed to later, but it will not impede or disrupt many aspects of trade across the English Channel. The deal comes after a long and heavily scrutinized negotiation process in Brussels that lasted eleven months. It was agreed to in a dramatic, last-minute deal heading into Christmas Eve - the deadline to reach an agreement was at the end of the year.
At a press conference, the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, stated the £668bn a year agreement would "protect jobs across this country" and "enable UK goods to be sold without tariffs, without quotas in the EU market".
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party would vote for the deal in the Commons, removing all doubt that it will pass in Parliament.
Source: Bloomberg
