DM Monitoring
LONDON: Boris Johnson has praised the “unprecedented” Brexit deal that UK and EU negotiators have reached, just eight days before the transition period was due to end. Speaking at a press conference, the PM praised those responsible for the agreement, as well as the UK’s “promising” future.
“We will be an independent coastal state with full control of our waters,” Mr Johnson said, before adding excitedly that Britain is now a “truly independent nation”. It follows statements given by EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and former chief negotiator Michel Barnier earlier on Thursday, in which they confirmed a deal had been reached and that it is now time “to leave Brexit behind us”.
The eleventh-hour agreement, which only emerged after a litany of missed deadlines, represents the largest trade deal ever signed by either side, retaining existing zero-tariff zero-quota arrangements on imports and exports totalling around £668bn a year. It also averts the so-called “Australian exit” which would have seen Britain trading on WTO terms with tariffs and quotas applied to its imports and exports. Ursula von der Leyen has declared Europe is “moving on” after securing a trade agreement with the UK in the final step of the Brexit process.
Appearing at a press conference to announce an agreement had been brokered between London and Brussels, the European Commission president said that while the UK remained a “trusted partner” it was time for the continent to “look to the future”. The accord follows years of deadlock between the two sides in the wake of UK’s narrow decision to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum.
The eleventh-hour deal, which is yet to be scrutinised by politicians on either side, was agreed just eight days before the New Year deadline and constitutes the biggest trade agreement either has ever brokered. “We have finally found an agreement”, Ms Von der Leyen said. “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.”
–The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
