Full text of UK-EU Brexit trade agreement published

The European Union and the UK have published the full text of the Brexit trade deal, with the document running to over 1,200 pages.

Iran PressEurope: The deal still has to be approved by all 27 EU countries, the UK, and European parliaments. EU ambassadors are reviewing the agreement following a meeting of the Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States (Coreper) on December 25.

Given so few days are left until the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31, the European Parliament is expected to vote retrospectively in January. The British Parliament will be recalled on December 30.

The UK government published the text on its website shortly after. Both the UK and the Commission also published additional texts covering economic, security, and nuclear cooperation. One includes joint declarations in areas such as financial services.

The deal will preserve Britain's zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the bloc's single market of 450 million consumers, but will not prevent economic pain and disruption for the United Kingdom or for EU member states.

Many aspects of Britain's future relationship with the EU remain to be hammered out, possibly over years.

The UK formally left the EU on 31 January but has since been in a transition period under which rules on trade, travel, and business remained unchanged until the end of this year.

The British parliament will debate and vote on the deal on 30 December, just one day before the transition period lapses.

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