# UK and EU agree to free trade deal



## x65943 (Dec 25, 2020)

More than 4 years after the UK voted to leave the EU, both parties have now agreed to a free trade agreement that will largely keep the UK closely aligned with the European trading bloc. The deal will be voted on by the EU parliament tomorrow and by UK parliament mid next week.

Is this saga finally coming to an end? Will the people of the UK accept this final soft brexit? Will parliament actually agree to this - surely the ERG will not be happy.

https://www.reuters.com/article/BigStory12/idUSKBN28Y02R


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## notimp (Dec 25, 2020)

*feigned surprise*


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## KingVamp (Dec 25, 2020)

Well, at least it isn't a hard one. Honestly, idk if Brexit was a good or bad decision overall.


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## notimp (Dec 25, 2020)

> Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey recently warned that a failure to secure a U.K.-E.U. trade deal would have a greater long-term impact on the British economy than the long-term impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to the country’s deepest recession in more than three centuries.


src: https://apnews.com/article/europe-g...emic-economy-0fd103ce01896898c34ee4fc25da5854


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## Taleweaver (Dec 25, 2020)

Okay... Paint me interested. Reminder : UK left the EU in January. This is supposed to be the transition period to the new deal...which was only reached yesterday. The deal is.. What? 2000 pages? Good luck on the scrutiny process. Anyone voting anything but 'abstain' is either part of the negotiating process or forced into a corner. 

I'm glad that tariffs are out of the question, but exactly how is the situation solved then? If I understand TL;DR news correct, the idea is that the EU's standards are maintained. This would solve the undercutting problem, but I thought this was a main reason to quit the EU in the first place? Does this mean standards need to be maintained, or just when trading with the EU? and if just the latter... Who will check this? Who will solve disputes? 

Still... I won't deny its a pleasant (and to me a genuine) surprise. Heck... More than before, even. Sure, I can just point to the current border situation and say 'yup... There's your no - deal brexit unfolding right there'. .. But it's not like things won't settle down eventually.

In the end, I'm just curious... And fed up. Until proven different, this is no different than May's three proposals. Well... Aside that she wasn't running out the clock while Johnson basically gives the rest of the government the choice between this and something worse.


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## notimp (Dec 31, 2020)

Sounds like the UK won on paper -


- but the larger battles arent fought yet.

Basically, free access to the european market, with no payment into european social systems - at the same time, only for wares, and not for services.

So the british can sell their truffle oils, or whatever, but at least the EU gets access to britain as a market - which might favor the EU all things considered.

UK service economy access (In 2019, the *service* industries accounted for 80% of total *UK economic* output (Gross Value Added). *Services *accounted for 82% of employment in July-September 2020.) is not part of the deal, neither is military protection on the UK side - so thats another round of negotiations.


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## emigre (Dec 31, 2020)

Interesting that the fishing industry was thrown under considering the narrative...


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## notimp (Dec 31, 2020)

emigre said:


> Interesting that the fishing industry was thrown under considering the narrative...


From the EU perspective, thats probably not a large concession, and the way the agreements are layered right now, its a 'pick up and reevaluate at a later point' matter. Something that would actually ensure discussions are picked back up. Because the UK still could significantly reduce fishing rights unilaterally a few years from now.

If anything, this is a matter that ensures, that the discussions are picked up again... (From my POV (european).)


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## x65943 (Dec 31, 2020)

emigre said:


> Interesting that the fishing industry was thrown under considering the narrative...


It was always rubbish, I suspect the bankers will be the only ones to actually get anything good out of this via deregulation (sure less access to EU, but we will see how much that really affects things)


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