Berlin (dpa) – Cross-channel trade between the EU and Britain will not run as smoothly post-Brexit as it has until now, a leading EU lawmaker has warned.
“Trade between the EU and the United Kingdom will no longer run as smoothly as if both sides were a part of the internal market and the customs union,” David McAllister, who heads the EU parliament’s UK coordination group, told the conservative German daily Die Welt in remarks published Friday.
Despite the last-minute trade deal, McAllister expects “far-reaching consequences for people, companies and public administrations” after London leaves the internal market at the end of the year.
But the MEP was optimistic that the EU Parliament will approve the deal.
“We have a political responsibility to avoid an unregulated transition and to keep the negative consequences for citizens and businesses as low as possible,” McAllister explained.
Britain and the European Union reached a post-Brexit trade deal on Thursday, just days before London was set to free-fall out of the bloc’s single market on January 1.
The breakthrough, which came after months of deadlock, allows both sides to swerve expensive tariffs.
GNA