Daily US Times: After months of intense talks and at almost the last minute, the European Union and the United Kingdom struck a provisional free trade agreement. Thursday’s agreement should avert New Year chaos for traders across the borders and bring a measure of certainty for businesses after years of Brexit turmoil.
With just over a week until the UK’s final split from the 27-nation-bloc, the British government announced that the “deal is done.”
It said the deal between the two sides was “the first free trade agreement based on zero tariffs and zero quotas that has ever been achieved with the EU.”
Officials in the EU also confirmed an agreement had been reached.
Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, said: “So we have finally found an agreement. It was a long and winding road but we have got a good deal to show for it.”
“It is fair, it is a balanced deal and it is the right and responsible thing to do for both sides,” she said.
Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minsiter, will make a statement about it.
The trade agreement ensures both the UK and the EU can continue to trade in goods without quotas or tariffs. But despite the breakthrough deal, key aspects of the future relationship between the EU and the UK remain uncertain.
The European and British parliaments both must hold votes on the agreement, though the EU parliament may not happen until after the U.K. leaves the EU’s economic embrace on Jan. 1.
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