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LONDON (AP) – A steady trickle of trucks rolled out of ferries and trains on either side of the English Channel on Friday, a quiet New Year’s Day after a nighttime seismic change in EU-Britain relations .
The busy freight route between South East England and North West France is on the front line of change now that the UK has completely left the economic embrace of the 27-nation bloc, the last Brexit stage.
“For the majority of trucks, they won’t even notice the difference,” said John Keefe, spokesperson for Eurotunnel, which transports vehicles under the Channel. “There was always the risk that if it happened at a busy time we might run into difficulties, but it happens overnight on a public holiday and on a long weekend.
Britain left the European bloc’s vast single market for people, goods and services at 11 p.m. London time, midnight in Brussels on Thursday, in the biggest economic change the country has seen since World War II . A new trade deal between the UK and the EU will bring new restrictions and red tape, but for UK Brexit supporters it means reclaiming the national independence of the EU and its network of rules.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose Brexit support helped push the country out of the EU, called it “an incredible moment for this country”.
“We have our freedom in our hands, and it’s up to us to make the most of it,” he said in a New Years video message.
The historic moment has passed quietly, with UK lockdown measures against the coronavirus reducing mass gatherings to celebrate or mourn. Brexit, which had dominated public debate in Britain for years, was even pushed back from some newspaper pages by news of the huge COVID-19 vaccination effort.
In the screened streets of London – which voted strongly to stay in the EU in the 2016 UK membership referendum – there was little enthusiasm for Brexit.
“I think it’s a disaster, among the many disasters this year,” said Matt Steel, a medical doctor. “This is a shit business. I don’t see much of a positive, to be honest.
The break comes 11 months after a political Brexit that left both sides in limbo for a ‘transition period’ in which EU rights and rules continued to apply to Britain .
The trade deal sealed on Christmas Eve after months of tense negotiations ensures that both sides can continue to buy and sell goods without tariffs or quotas. But companies are facing new costs and red tape, including customs declarations and border controls.
The Channel Port of Dover and the Eurotunnel prepared for delays with the introduction of the new measures.
The vital supply route has been harassed for days after France closed its border to British truckers for 48 hours last week in response to a rapidly spreading variant of the virus identified in England.
The pandemic and a holiday weekend kept cross-Channel traffic light on Friday. Britain has also delayed the imposition of full customs controls by several months so businesses can adapt.
The UK government has insisted that ‘the border systems and infrastructure we need are in place and we are ready for the UK’s fresh start’.
New controls were also in place across the Irish Sea. A dozen trucks exited the first ferry to arrive at Dublin port from Wales before dawn, passing new customs inspections without delay.
“We have avoided the kind of dramatic disruption of a no-trade Brexit, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t changing very fundamentally, because they are,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.
“We are now going to see the 80 billion euros ($ 97 billion) of trade across the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland disrupted by a lot more checks and declarations, bureaucracy and red tape. , as well as costs and delays. “
Hundreds of millions of people in Britain and the bloc are also facing changes in their daily lives, with new rules for work visas, travel insurance and pet paperwork.
And months and years of discussion and argument await us, on everything from fair competition to fishing quotas, as Britain and the EU settle into their new relationship as friends, neighbors and rivals.
Brexit could also have major constitutional repercussions for the UK. Northern Ireland, which shares a border with EU member Ireland, remains more closely linked to the EU economy under the conditions of divorce. So, while goods will continue to flow freely across the Irish land border, new procedures for trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK will be put in place, which in the long term could push Ireland away from the north of the rest of the UK and head south. neighbour.
In Scotland, which voted strongly in 2016 to stay, Brexit has bolstered support for separation from the UK. The country’s pro-independence Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted: “Scotland will be back soon, Europe. Keep the light on.
EU leaders, whose patience with Britain has run out during years of Brexit melodrama, have expressed regret at the UK’s departure and anger at the forces that drove it.
“The UK remains our neighbor but also our friend and ally,” French President Emmanuel Macron said in his New Year’s address to the nation. “This choice to leave Europe, this Brexit, was the result of European malaise and a lot of lies and false promises.”
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Jo Kearney from Folkestone, England contributed to this story.
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Follow all of PA’s Brexit stories at https://apnews.com/Brexit
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