Opinion: Trade in Our Time

The EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement was negotiated in nine months—much faster than the typical trade deal. The same time it took to develop a first vaccine against Corona in fact.
Nobody yet knows how effective this will be but at last it seems we have light at the end of the tunnel and  hope for a positive future.
As for the trade deal, both sides agreed that there is no other way than to find a way forward and accept any side effects.  The EU avoids a hard border and keeps the “four freedoms” of the single market: free movement of goods, services, capital, and people. The very same single market which, ironically, the UK took the lead in proposing. The UK achieves “zero tariff, zero quota” goods trade with its main trading partner.
In the UK as well is in EU, it will now be harder to blame the other party when things go wrong. But the Christmas Eve agreement is not the end of the story, it is a living document and we do not know the long term outcome.  It is unlikely to cure all ills but let’s hope it’s at least the basis for healthy co-operation.  There may be new ways found to deal with the biggest frustrations which emerge.
The principles of July 1968 whereby all customs duties and restrictions were lifted between the six member countries of the European Economic Community are maintained by the EU.
For EU-UK trade we are now back to the situation before 1988 when The Single Administrative Document replaced hundreds of national customs declaration forms.
This will cause administrative burdens and have its costs.
But nothing compared to the situation before.

Happy Trade – Happy New Year!

Jakob True
Managing Director,
Green Seed Nordic