World News – UK – Brexit: Boris Johnson to announce trade deal with EU

css-14iz86j-BoldText {font size: bold;} Boris Johnson is expected to announce later that the UK has reached an agreement with the EU on post-Brexit trade and security

Officials in Brussels are believed to finalize the details of an agreement that will come into effect when the UK leaves EU trade rules next week

The Prime Minister will speak to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, by phone to sign the deal

Mr. Johnson is then expected to hold a press conference on Downing Street to make the announcement

The announcement was expected earlier but has been delayed while the final haggling between the two sides continues

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told RTE Radio that there had been “some sort of last minute problem” with the fine print of the fisheries quota agreement, but a deal was awaited later

An agreement would end the prospect that both sides would January impose widespread import taxes – tariffs – on each other’s goods, which could have affected prices

BBC Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg said Mr Johnson and Mrs von der Leyen spoke four times on Wednesday to try to get an “over the line” deal

She said the negotiators were “still haggling over some fine details,” including catch quotas for more than 100 species of fish in UK waters

The deal is believed to have no role to play for the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court of justice, and both sides have agreed on a dispute settlement system that follows international law, not EU law, ours political editor said

In addition, both sides have agreed to introduce new fishing regimes over a period of five years, with the UK catching up to two thirds of the fish in UK waters by the end of the transition

The business document should be around 2000 pages The UK Parliament is expected to be recalled before December 31 December, when the Brexit transition period ends, to vote on a law to implement an agreement

On the EU side, the heads of state and government can decide to apply an agreement provisionally before the European Parliament holds a ratification vote at the beginning of next year. Depending on the exact content of the agreement, approval in the national EU parliaments could be required. p>

BBC Europe’s correspondent Gavin Lee said Ms. von der Leyen was due to speak later to set out details of the deal

It is believed that one of the final obstacles to be discussed is quotas for certain fish species

The United Kingdom has insisted on January to have control of the fisheries in its waters and to keep a larger share of the catch from them than under the current quota system

However, the EU wanted to establish a new fishing system over a longer period of time and improve access to British waters for boats from France, Spain and other Member States

The sides also disagreed on whether UK companies should continue to follow the same rules as companies within the EU – and how future trade disputes should be resolved

When the afternoon gave way to the evening and the evening of the night in Brussels, optimism never faded, but it never became a deal either

At some point pizzas came for the tired officials – a delivery man on a bicycle who turned up at the gates of the European Commission

It was assumed that the negotiators were still haggling over exact quotas for individual species of fish that EU boats were allowed to catch in UK waters

The governments of each EU member state have to look into the details of an agreement, but have been kept informed throughout the process and shouldn’t find much, if anything, to surprise them

The question of how the agreement can be promoted for public consumption is much more pressing for the British than for the European

There are legal open issues for the EU, but the European Parliament will not vote on an agreement retrospectively until later in the new year

In the UK, before Jan. December reach an agreement on Parliament

The UK ministers have repeatedly ruled out an extension of the transition period after which the UK left the EU on December 31 January continues to follow the Brussels trade rules

Sir Ian Cheshire, Chairman of Barclays UK, welcomed an agreement that would bring “clarity” to the business

On BBC Radio 4’s Today program, he said planning a new trade relationship with the EU has been “the overriding issue for businesses for the past two years”

“That was pure politics. It was always the last kind of rabbit out of the hat,” he added

The European Research Group of Conservative MEPs who support Brexit has promised to re-convene their group of lawyers to analyze all the agreements reached

The group was extremely critical of the withdrawal agreement between former Prime Minister Theresa May and the EU

Chairman Mark Francois and Vice-Chairman David Jones said they would “study it carefully to ensure that its provisions truly protect UK sovereignty”

css-q4by3k-IconContainer {display: none; Height: 1em; Width: 1em; vertical alignment: -0125em; Right margin: 025em;} playSanta explains what a Covid Christmas looks like VideoSanta explains what a Covid Christmas looks like

© 2020 BBC The BBC is not responsible for the content of external websites css-1xgx53b-Link {Font family: ReithSans, Helvetica, Arial, Freesans, sans serif; Font size: 700; -webkit text decoration: none; Text decoration: none; Color: #FFFFFF;} css-1xgx53b-Link: Schweben, css-1xgx53b-Link: focus {-webkit-text-decoration: underline; text-decoration: underline;} Read more about our external link approach

Brexit, Brexit last, Brexit deal, Christmas Eve