On October 22, 2019, the House of Commons voted by 329 votes to 299 to give a second reading to the revised withdrawal agreement (negotiated by Boris Johnson earlier this month), but when the accelerated timetable he proposed did not receive the necessary parliamentary support, Johnson announced that the legislation would be suspended. [38] [12] The UK Parliament approved the draft agreement at the time by adopting implementing rules (European Union (withdrawal agreement) Act 2020) on 23 January 2020. Following the signing of the Agreement, the Government of the United Kingdom published and deposited the British Instrument of Ratification of the Agreement on 29 January 2020. [7] [8] The agreement was ratified by the Council of the European Union on 30 January 2020, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament on 29 January 2020. The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the Union took effect on 11.m. GMT on 31 January 2020, and on that date, the Withdrawal Agreement pursuant to Article 185 entered into force. The relevant clauses were removed from the bill before it was passed following an agreement between the UK and the EU on a number of issues related to the implementation of the protocol. The Withdrawal Agreement sets out the terms negotiated between the UK and the EU27 between June 2017 and October 2019 after the UK announced its intention to withdraw from the EU`s political institutions on 29 March 2017. The Irish backstop will be abolished and replaced by a new Protocol on Northern Ireland/Republic of Ireland.

The whole of the UK is leaving the EU customs union as a single customs territory, with Northern Ireland included in all future UK trade agreements. However, Northern Ireland adopts EU single market rules for goods (including EU VAT) to avoid a hard border and remains a point of entry into the EU customs union. [23] This leads to a de jure customs border on the island of Ireland, but to a de facto customs border in the Irish Sea. EU tariffs (which depend on an FTA between the UK and the EU) levied by the UK on behalf of the EU would be levied on goods that run from the UK to Northern Ireland and are likely to be transported and sold in the Republic of Ireland; If this is ultimately not the case, companies in Northern Ireland can claim discounts on goods whose customs duties were lower than those of the EU in the UK. [24] [25] The November 2018 version of the Withdrawal Agreement provided for a transition period (called by the UK Government implementation period) from 31 March 2019, the original date on which the UK was to leave the EU, to 31 December 2020. The transitional provisions were incorporated into the Withdrawal Agreement in October 2019, with the possibility of extending them by mutual agreement. This option had to be exercised before July 1, 2020, which was not the case. In fact, the government has passed laws to prevent any minister from agreeing to an extension of the transition period. On 15 November 2018, one day after the british government cabinet presented and supported the agreement, several members of the government resigned, including Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Leaving the European Union. [28] A footnote to Article 129(1) of the Withdrawal Agreement provided that the EU informed counterparties to its trade agreements that the UK should be treated as if it were still a member of the EU during the transition period. However, this was essentially a request to third countries to treat the United Kingdom as such and they were not obliged to do so.

Once the arbitration panel has made a decision, the parties negotiate a “reasonable” timetable for its implementation (Article 176). If no consensus can be reached, the question of what a reasonable period of time is will be referred to the panel. Each transposition period may be extended by mutual agreement (Article 176(5)). The most important elements of the draft agreement are:[21] During the transition period, the UK was unable to conclude its own trade agreements with third countries (although it was able to negotiate and ratify them until they entered into force during the transition period). .