After months of negotiations, UK, EU secure Brexit trade deal

The United Kingdom and European Union have agreed on a
post-Brexit trade deal after months of torturous negotiations,
averting the prospect of a chaotic and acrimonious divorce at the
end of this year.

The announcement on Thursday came just one week before the UK
exits the EU’s single market and customs union on December 31.

“Deal is done,” a Downing Street source said. “We have taken
back control of our money, borders, laws, trade and our fishing
waters.

“The deal is fantastic news for families and businesses in every
part of the UK. We have signed the first free trade agreement based
on zero tariffs and zero quotas that has ever been achieved with
the EU.

“We have delivered this great deal for the entire United Kingdom
in record time, and under extremely challenging conditions, which
protects the integrity of our internal market and Northern
Ireland’s place within it,” the source said.

EU and British negotiators were up all night working on the
deal, reportedly fuelled by takeaway pizzas, as they hashed out
final details at the Berlaymont, the headquarters of the European
Commission.

Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,
meanwhile, spoke several times by phone.

The deal comes more than four years after a slim majority of
Britons voted to quit the bloc in a June 2016 referendum on EU
membership

The agreement document is said to be about 2,000 pages long. In
essence, it is a narrow free trade pact surrounded with other
agreements on a range of issues including energy, transport and
police and security cooperation.

Al Jazeera

The United Kingdom and European Union have agreed on a
post-Brexit trade deal after months of torturous negotiations,
averting the prospect of a chaotic and acrimonious divorce at the
end of this year.

The announcement on Thursday came just one week before the UK
exits the EU’s single market and customs union on December 31.

“Deal is done,” a Downing Street source said. “We have taken
back control of our money, borders, laws, trade and our fishing
waters.

“The deal is fantastic news for families and businesses in every
part of the UK. We have signed the first free trade agreement based
on zero tariffs and zero quotas that has ever been achieved with
the EU.

“We have delivered this great deal for the entire United Kingdom
in record time, and under extremely challenging conditions, which
protects the integrity of our internal market and Northern
Ireland’s place within it,” the source said.

EU and British negotiators were up all night working on the
deal, reportedly fuelled by takeaway pizzas, as they hashed out
final details at the Berlaymont, the headquarters of the European
Commission.

Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen,
meanwhile, spoke several times by phone.

The deal comes more than four years after a slim majority of
Britons voted to quit the bloc in a June 2016 referendum on EU
membership

The agreement document is said to be about 2,000 pages long. In
essence, it is a narrow free trade pact surrounded with other
agreements on a range of issues including energy, transport and
police and security cooperation.

Al Jazeera