What stage is the UK at with Brexit Negotiations?

The trade deal discussions are dominating the headlines once again with little over 3 weeks to go until the cut off.
With that in mind, we thought we would recap on some of the new legislation and trade deals so far.

 

Legislation

Time is running out with the current Brexit negotiations.
Preparing the UK for life outside EU institutions means brining about new legislation which is currently being reviewed by parliament.
This freedom of movement ends on 31 December and a new point-based system is being introduced

 

We posted a blog yesterday listing some important areas to consider with links to informative websites. For example, if your business relies on EU or other non UK workers then please review the transitional arrangements to 30 June 2021 and the new rules here: https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families .

Again, these are detailed in our previous blog post.

 

Last month the Government agreed that farmers will receive the same level of support as they currently do through the Common Agricultural Policy until 2024. If this is likely to affect you, please see this link: https://services.parliament.uk/Bills/2019-21/agriculture.html

 

As expected, the government is beginning to bring existing EU laws and rules into UK legislation before the end of the transition period. For example, the Financial Services Bill was introduced on the 21st October to maintain the UK’s regulatory standards and openness to international markets.

This Bill is the first step in shaping a regulatory framework for the UK’s financial services sector outside of the EU. For more information on this bill see this link:https://www.gov.uk/government/news/financial-services-bill-introduced-today

 

Trade deals

The Government is currently negotiating new trade deals as a matter of urgency. Whilst the UK was an EU member, the UK was part of 40 trade deals which the EU had with more than 70 countries.  More than 20 of these existing deals, covering 50 countries or territories, have been rolled over and will start on 1 January 2021.

 

The good news is that 52 countries currently have free trade deals in place with the UK for the end of the Brexit transition period. But unfortunately, these agreements account for only 10 per cent of the UK’s total cross-border trade.

 

A trade deal has been agreed with Japan which means that 99% of UK exports will be free of tariffs.

 

There are further trade talks with Australia, the US and New Zealand. When these talks come to a trade deal only time will tell.

 

This link will show you the agreements that have already been agreed from 1st January 2021.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-trade-agreements-with-non-eu-countries#trade-agreements-from-1-january-2021

 

EU-UK trade accounts for half of overall UK trade and seven of the UK’s top ten trading partners are EU members. This is the main reason why we hope a trade deal happens!