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The agreement avoids a no-deal exit that the Office for Budget Responsibility had warned would reduce Britain’s economic output by £40bn in 2021 and cost more than 300,000 jobs.
The UK left the EU on 31 January but has benefited from continued membership of the single market and customs union over the last year, with British citizens retaining the right to freedom of movement around the bloc.
Businesses will face extra paperwork and costs when trading with the UK’s biggest export market. Freedom of movement for most UK nationals will end, with restrictions imposed on stays in EU member states. As a “third country” to the EU, coronavirus travel restrictions could be imposed on UK nationals as of 1 January.
The agreement will nevertheless be a matter of huge relief to millions of people on both sides, four and a half years since the UK decided to leave the EU in June 2016. The negotiations, staged in Brussels and London, had weaved precariously through a pandemic, appearing doomed to failure at several points.
Only two weeks ago, Johnson told the cabinet to prepare for a no-deal exit, warning the public that such an eventuality was “very, very likely”.
UK and EU agree Brexit trade deal
No 10 says ‘we have taken back control’, after years of talks end in settlement allowing tariff-free trade in goods
www.theguardian.com