U.K. And EU Agree To Last-Minute Brexit Trade Deal

Enlarge this image

A pro-EU demonstrator sets up banners outside a London conference center, where trade talks were being held on Dec. 4.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

hide caption

toggle caption

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Europe
The Long, Uneasy Wait Is Over: Parties, Protests And Solemn Silence Greet Brexit

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has argued that leaving the EU will benefit the U.K. in the long run. He says it will allow Britain to negotiate independent free trade deals with other major economies, such as the United States and China, unencumbered by the bureaucracy, regulations and collective decision-making in Brussels, where the union is headquartered.

Being part of the European Union has meant U.K. companies could trade smoothly with Europe without tariffs or customs checks as if they were inside the same country. But one price of membership had been that EU citizens were allowed to live and work visa-free inside the U.K. It was amid anxiety over migration that British voters stunned the world in 2016 and voted to leave the EU.

The U.K. has spent most of this year in a transition period, which ends Dec. 31. Disruptions and backups at ports are could well follow as customs controls and new processes come into force at EU borders.

To minimize delays, the British government has told U.K. truckers that they will have to obtain a permit to enter the county of Kent, home to the Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel on the channel.

The deal still requires approval by the British Parliament and will be scrutinized by the governments of the EU’s 27 member-states. But this agreement begins to draw to a close one of the most tumultuous chapters in contemporary British history.

Brexit toppled two prime ministers — David Cameron and Theresa May — caused chaos in the U.K. Parliament and weakened the country’s economy as well as its standing in the world. After decades in the European Union, which was designed to promote peace and prosperity after two world wars, the island nation of nearly 67 million people will strike out on its own. Many political analysts are skeptical of the move and view it as one of the greatest self-inflicted wounds by a major democracy in many years.

The Indicator from Planet Money
A Business Owner’s View On Brexit

The ultimate timing of the end of the Brexit saga is especially bad. The United Kingdom continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 69,000 people — one of Europe’s highest death tolls. Gross domestic product in Britain is expected to fall by 11% this year. That would be the largest drop since the Great Frost of 1709, when temperatures plunged in large parts of Europe, destroying crops, killing hundreds of thousands of people in France and devastating economies.