In the recent negotiations, which culminated in the Agreement of 24 December 2020, the UK was at a disadvantage because it now represented a market of 66 million consumers compared to a market of 450 million in the EU.
In the «Agreement on the New Partnεrship» which will place the relationship between the EU and the UK was agreed that trade would continue to take place without duties and quotas so as not to break “production chains”. But this will only be done for goods that comply with the “rules of origin”, a term that is first put into a trade agreement.
by Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis
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More specifically:
Goods
The agreement guarantees duty-free exchanges, customs controls, and quotas for ‘All goods complying with the rules of origin’. Unprecedented for a trade deal. In addition, the agreement prevents the breakdown of production chains and avoids the imposition of duties of 10% on the car sector, 25% on catch-based processing products and 50% on beef, dairy products, poultry, pork, lambs, cereals, sugar and a range of processed food products.
However, companies will have to deposit customs documents in both directions and the products will have to go through health checks.
Competition
The UK and the EU are committed to a level playing field. The UK agrees not to revise for the worse all the social, labour, environmental and climate European laws and rules in force on 31 December 2020 and to adapt to their development.
The Agreement provides for the possibility of applying unilateral balancing measures, by imposing duties, in the event of significant deviations which may lead to an increase in their cost of production, and consequently a competitive disadvantage.
It was also agreed to maintain a level playing field in the areas of tax transparency and state subsidies.
Fishing
For the fisheries sector it was agreed that there would be a transitional period (five years and six months) by June 2026, during which the current rights of European fishermen in British waters, equivalent to €650m, would be reduced by 25% annually.
If the UK restricts EU access or catches, the EU can take retribution by imposing tariffs on fishery products and other British goods, even to cut off much of the trade agreement while keeping the rules of equal competition intact.
Transport
The agreement guarantees a lasting air, road, rail and maritime connection, but in a much less privileged way than would have been the case if the UK had remained in the single market.
The agreement ensures equal competition between transport operators so as not to jeopardise the rights of passengers, workers, and transport safety.
Programs
The UK will continue to participate in several EU programmes for 2021-2027, such as horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme, provided it contributes to the European budget. But the UK will find itself outside the Erasmus student exchange programme.
Judicial Cooperation
The agreement introduces a new framework in the field of police and judicial cooperation ‘particularly in the fight against cross-border crime and terrorism’.
The two parties to the agreement will continue to exchange DNA data and data, fingerprints and passenger information and will cooperate through Europol.
Such cooperation could be suspended if the UK withdraws from the European Convention on Human Rights or abandons its implementation at national level.
Financial services
From 01 January 2021, the UK will no longer benefit from the principles of the free movement of persons, the free availability of services and the free establishment of a seat.
British institutions will lose the automatic right to offer services across the EU and will have to move to the EU to continue doing so.
They will no longer participate in the ‘country of origin’ approach or the ‘passport’ scheme, where permits issued by a Member State under EU rules allow access to the entire EU single market.
Copyright
All protected geographical names that exist in the EU today will also remain protected in the UK, but the EU has not secured guarantees for protected geographical names to be registered in the future.
Data protection
The UK will remain within the EU regulatory framework in terms of data transfer for a total of six months, if it takes for the EU to determine whether the data protection regime proposed by the UK corresponds to the European framework.
Differences
If either party does not comply with the terms of the Agreement the issue will be addressed by a Dispute Resolution Mechanism involving both parties. will be tasked with settling them, as is the case in most trade agreements. Because of the UK’s opposition, the EU Court of Justice will not interfere in the process.
Supervision of the Agreement
A ‘Joint Council’ will supervise the interpretation and implementation of the terms of the agreement. The relationship between the EU and the UK could be changed every five years. A unilateral exit from the agreement must be preceded by a notification one year in time.
What Brexit means for politics
What is certain, however, is that the UK will have restrictions on its economic, development and trade policy. It will not be possible e.g., to impose import duties to protect some sectors of its economy or to grant government subsidies to strengthen other sectors.
In return he received the free export of British goods and services to the European single market.
Of course, all this can be overthrown in the future. The UK may e.g., impose tariffs on some products and be subject to tariff retaliation by the EU if it deems it to be in the best interests of its economy. This is what the Donald Trump administration did in different directions.
The UK had exceedingly difficult problems even though it had its own currency, sterling and its public debt is a significant percentage of its national currency.
But what caused Brexit on the world stage, among other things, was that it brought the nation-state back to the forefront of politics as a separate entity as it was in Europe until the 1960s.
So, if the independence of the UK from a bloc of states such as the EU succeeds and given that the trend in international politics is the economic, political, military, and monetary union of states then we will be talking about a change of course of many states that have now surrendered. their national powers in supranational organizations.
