+ US presidential transition
          + Climate change
          + Brexit
          + The World in 2021
          + 1843 magazine
--

The end is where we start from
The post-Brexit trade agreement leaves many questions unanswered

   Wrangling over the details—and the big omissions—will go on for years
--
   expectation is that most people will see enough in the deal (and be
   sufficiently worried by the alternative of no deal) to welcome the
   outcome. Brexiteers are pleased that Britain will be out of the single
   market and customs union and escape the jurisdiction of the European
   Court of Justice (though this overlooks the fact that Northern Ireland
   will remain covered by all three). The EU believes it will have enough
   purchase to deter future regulatory divergence, even though some in
   London see such divergence as one of the key reasons for Brexit. For
   both sides the agreement to zero tariffs and zero quotas on goods trade
   will be seen as mutually beneficial.
--
   The next task is to ratify the deal in time for the standstill
   transition period to end on December 31st. Mr Johnson is busily
   promising hardline Brexiteers in his party that they have got what they
   wanted. In fact, he is sure to get his deal through Parliament when it
   votes on December 30th even if some Brexiteers rebel, not least because
   the Labour opposition is poised to back the deal on the ground that it
   is better than no deal. On the EU side, the decision has been taken to
--

   For Britain, the deal leaves two other big questions unanswered. The
   first concerns the extent to which, now that Brexit is done, the issue
   can be forgotten, with no more need to worry about the country’s
   relationship with the European Union. And the answer is that it is
--
   third countries like the United States that might help achieve such a
   goal. And Mr Johnson’s government has since mid-2019 been so taken up
   first with Brexit and then with covid-19 that it has offered precious
   little in the shape of an alternative economic course that would make
   up for ground lost through leaving the EU. In his Sunday Telegraph