British parliament votes in favour of post-Brexit trade deal with EU

Britain’s House of Commons has voted resoundingly to approve a trade deal with the European Union, paving the way for an orderly break with the bloc that will finally complete the UK’s years-long Brexit journey.

With just a day to spare, lawmakers voted 521-73 in favour of the agreement sealed between the UK government and the EU last week.

It will become British law once is passes through the unelected House of Lords later in the day and gets formal royal assent from Queen Elizabeth II.

The UK left the EU almost a year ago, but remained within the bloc’s economic embrace during a transition period that ends at midnight Brussels time, 2300GMT in London, on Thursday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel signed the agreement during a brief ceremony in Brussels. The documents were then being flown by Royal Air Force plane to London for Johnson to add his signature.

“The agreement that we signed today is the result of months of intense negotiations in which the European Union has displayed an unprecedented level of unity,” Michel said. “It is a fair and balanced agreement that fully protects the fundamental interests of the European Union and creates stability and predictability for citizens and companies.”

READ MORE: EU nations formally give nod to post-Brexit trade deal with UK

The European Parliament also must sign off on the agreement, but is not expected to do so for several weeks.

Just after the EU’s top officials formally signed the hard-won agreement in Brussels, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged legislators in the House of Commons to back a deal that he said heralded “a new relationship between Britain and the EU as sovereign equals.”

It has been 4 and a half years since Britain voted 52 percent to 48 percent to leave the bloc it had joined in 1973. Brexit started on January 31 of this year, but the real repercussions of that decision have yet to be felt, since the UK’s economic relationship with the EU remained unchanged during the 11-month transition period that ends December 31.

Inconvenience

That will change on New Year’s Day. The agreement, hammered out after more than nine months of tense negotiations and sealed on Christmas Eve, will ensure Britain and the 27-nation EU can continue to trade in goods without tariffs or quotas. That should help protect the $894 billion (660 billion pounds) in annual trade between the two sides, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that rely on it.

But the end to Britain’s membership in the EU’s vast single market and customs union will still bring inconvenience and new expense for both individuals and businesses, from the need for tourists to have travel insurance to the millions of new customs declarations that firms will have to fill out.

Brexit supporters, including Johnson, say any short-term pain will be worth it.

Johnson said the Brexit deal would turn Britain from “a half-hearted, sometimes obstructive member of the EU” into “a friendly neighbour, the best friend and ally the EU could have.”

He said Britain would now “trade and cooperate with our European neighbours on the closest terms of friendship and goodwill, whilst retaining sovereign control of our laws and our national destiny.”

Some lawmakers grumbled about being given only five hours in Parliament to scrutinise a 1,200-page deal that will mean profound changes for Britain’s economy and society. But it is highly likely to get backing from the House of Commons, where Johnson’s Conservative Party has a large majority.

The party’s powerful eurosceptic wing, which fought for years for the seemingly longshot goal of taking Britain out of the EU, has backed the deal.

The strongly pro-EU Scottish National Party and Liberal Democrats voted against the bill. But the main opposition Labour Party, which had sought a closer relationship with the bloc, said it would vote for the agreement because even a thin deal was better than a chaotic no-deal rupture.

“We have only one day before the end of the transition period, and it’s the only deal that we have," said Labour leader Keir Starmer. "It’s a basis to build on in the years to come.”

Former Prime Minister Theresa May, who resigned in 2019 after three years of Brexit acrimony in Parliament, said she would vote for Johnson's agreement. But she said it was worse than the one she had negotiated with the bloc, which lawmakers repeatedly rejected.

She noted that the deal protected trade in goods but did not cover services, which account for 80 percent of Britain's economy.

“We have a deal in trade, which benefits the EU, but not a deal in services, which would have benefitted the UK," May said.

READ MORE: UK and EU agreed to a post-Brexit trade deal. Here’s what it comprises

Red tape panic in Dover

Karen Strand must have one of the least enviable jobs in Britain currently: she's a customs broker at the busy Channel port of Dover in southeast England.

Britain leaves the European Union's customs union and single market but even with a free-trade deal that avoids tariffs and quotas, she says preparations are less than smooth.

"In a word, it's absolute chaos," she told AFP from her small import-export agency, which has found itself on the front line dealing with the consequences of Brexit.

Until recently, the rhythm of business at Strand's company, KSI Portlink Ltd, was dictated by the pace of the ferries arriving and departing with their cargoes at the nearby port.

Local small- and medium-sized businesses delivered apples, electronic components or rolls of fabric to be shipped to mainland Europe.

Strand's company mainly dealt in logistics, packaging and storing the goods for transport with only a few minor administrative formalities to take care of.

But overnight, it became as complicated for her to work with neighbouring Europe, which on a clear day can be seen across the Channel, as with Australia on the other side of the world.

For imports, her clients now have to download a new customs form for the UK. Exports are even trickier, and time-consuming.

"We now have to deal with 27 different countries," she said, referring to EU member states.

"As soon as a product (from the UK) hits the European continent... it needs a transit guarantee" to cover unpaid bills or customs irregularities, she added.

READ MORE: Britain and EU release full text of post-Brexit trade deal

'Uncertainties surrounding Brexit'

A typical day currently sees Strand receive 25 telephone calls and some 30 emails within hours of opening.

She has had to create an automatic reply to emails, apologising for not being able to respond to requests immediately.

"As agents, we are here to help. It hurts. We work around the clock but it's not enough, we have to turn business away, especially new clients. We are now at full capacity," she said.

On her return from the short Christmas break, Strand, who has 10 full-time employees, recruited 10 new temporary staff and quickly began to train them in customs form-filling.

But with the last-gasp deal between London and Brussels concluded just days from the deadline, detail is thin and there is uncertainty about how it will be applied practically.

"We don't have any reliable information. The government is so slow to communicate," she said.

Hefty technical details

The British government has stepped up its departure campaign in recent weeks, encouraging businesses and individuals to be prepared.

"Get ready! Time is running out," television, radio and newspaper adverts declare as the clock ticks down to the deadline, directing the unprepared to a special website dedicated to the new rules.

But in Strand's view, this is of little use to international trade professionals, who have to deal with very specific questions from their clients, depending on the type of goods.

As for the hefty trade agreement document, which weighs in at more than 1,200 pages, the technical details will take "weeks, if not months" to fully digest, she said.

Kent, the county surrounding Dover, has already faced huge disruption from lorries blocked from travelling to the European mainland because of fears about a new variant of the coronavirus.

That was seen by some as a vision of things to come from January 1 .

But on top of continued concerns about traffic hold-ups caused by extra paperwork and customs checks, some local companies that relied on ease of movement and proximity have already thrown in the towel.

Model train manufacturer Hornby announced before Christmas that it was suspending all deliveries abroad until January 4, blaming "uncertainties surrounding Brexit".

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