The long and sometimes bitter divorce between Britain and the European Union ended on Thursday in an economic crisis that leaves the EU smaller and Britain more free, but more isolated in a turbulent world.
The United Kingdom left the vast European single market at 23:00, London time or at midnight in Brussels, thus completing the largest single economic change the country has had since World War II. A new trade agreement between the UK and the EU will bring its own restrictions and bureaucracy, but for British Brexiters the new deal means regaining national independence.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose support for Brexit helped the country leave the EU, said it was “an incredible time for this country”.
“We have the freedom in our hands and it is up to us to make the most of it,” he said in a New Year’s video message.
The rift comes 11 months after a political Brexit that left both sides speechless, with a “transition period”, as a separate couple still live together, arguing and wondering if they can remain friends. Now Britain has finally passed.
It was a day that some had longed for, and others had feared since the UK approved in a 2016 referendum to leave the EU, but it had a climax. UK blockade measures to reduce coronavirus infections have reduced mass rallies to celebrate or mourn the moment, although Parliament’s huge bell, Big Ben, rang 11 times an hour as it prepared to strike. the new Year. midnight.
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A free trade agreement on Christmas Eve after months of tense negotiations ensures that the UK and the 27 EU nations can continue to buy and sell goods without tariffs or quotas. This should help protect £ 660 billion ($ 894 billion) in annual trade between the two sides and the hundreds of thousands of jobs that depend on it.
But companies face a number of new costs and documents, including customs declarations and border controls. Traders are struggling to assimilate the new rules imposed by a 1,200-page trade agreement that was agreed just a week before the split.
The Dover Port of the Canal and the Eurotunnel route for passengers and freight were preparing for the delays that the new measures would bring, although the coronavirus pandemic and a holiday weekend meant that traffic on the La Mancha Canal was light, with only a few trucks reaching the points. border crossing in Calais, France, at the end of 2020. The vital supply route became a swamp a few days after France closed its border for trucks in the Kingdom. United 48 hours last week in response to the presence of a new variant of coronavirus identified in England.
The British government insisted that “the border systems and infrastructure we need are in place and we are ready for the new beginning of the United Kingdom.”
But the truck companies were holding their breath. Youngs Transport in the UK has suspended services to the EU until January 11 “to let things settle”.
“We think it gives the country a week or so to get used to all these new entry and exit systems, and we can take a look and hope to solve any problems before we deliver our trucks,” said company director Rob Hollyman.
The services sector, which accounts for 80% of the UK economy, does not even know what the rules will be for doing business with the EU in 2021, as many of the details have not yet been finalized. Months and years of quarrels are facing any number of problems, from fair competition to fishing quotas, as the UK and the EU settle into their new relationship of friends, neighbors and rivals.
Hundreds of millions of people in the UK and the bloc are also facing changes in their daily lives. British and EU citizens have automatically lost their right to live and work in each other’s territory. From now on, they will have to comply with immigration rules and obtain work visas. Tourists will not need visas for short trips, but new headaches – from travel insurance to pet papers – are approaching British people visiting the continent.