The United Kingdom will complete its exit from the European Union (EU) at 23pm GMT today (31.12.2020), four and a half years after the Brexit process began.
According to EU-UK trade and cooperation agreement, As of January 1, 2021, The UK will lose all rights and obligations it had as an EU Member State and during the transition period under the Withdrawal AgreementThe country will no longer benefit from continued access to the EU single market and customs union, nor from EU policies and international agreements (including its free trade agreements with other third countries).
This will create new barriers to trade in goods and services and to cross-border mobility and exchanges that do not exist today, in both directions. While the new agreement will serve to limit disruption compared to a situation without an agreement, public administrations, businesses, citizens and stakeholders on both sides will inevitably be affected.
However, The split will not affect the current political alignment between London and Brussels, nor bilateral cooperation in the defense and security sectors, there is concern about the new directions that trade, financial services and travel will take, especially since the trade agreement that avoided an acrimonious divorce was reached last week.
We recall that the United Kingdom left the European alliance on 31 January 2020 as part of the Brexit process, but the parties agreed to an eleven-month transition period to negotiate the terms of their future relationship.
After numerous rounds of negotiations over fishing quotas and regulations to prevent unfair competition, the British government and the EU announced on Christmas Eve that the free trade agreement was a fait accompli.
From that moment on, the European and British parliaments barely had time to glance at the extensive agreement and approve it in a single day.
As part of that New relationship, the movement of people comes to an end, and both British and European community citizens will need visas to work and study on both sides.
While trade in goods will remain tariff-free, British exporters will still have to fill out customs declarations and other documents, and goods will be subject to additional checks at the border.
Even with the new deal in place, companies will face new trade barriers, leading to a rising costs and will require adjustments to integrated EU-UK supply chains.
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