The Facts

What does the Trade and Cooperation Agreement mean and what does it include? How will it impact UK-EU relations going forward?

Dispute resolution is the mutually agreed process by which disagreements over the interpretation, application or breach of a trade agreement can be…

Dynamic alignment is the idea that parties to a trade agreement maintain equivalent regulatory standards to each other in future.

Cross-retaliation refers to the idea that parties to a trade agreement can take retaliatory action, such as implementing tariffs, in areas not directly related to those in which a breach has taken place.

Non-regression is the idea that different parties to a trade agreement commit in future to at least maintaining their current level of regulatory standards on things like labour law and environmental protection.

If you already live in an EU country prior to the end of the transition period at the end of 2020, you will have the right to continue to live in that country with broadly the same rights as before, subject to any additional requirements that EU countries insist on.

Maroš Šefčovič is the EU’s representative on the UK-EU Joint Committee, which was set up to manage the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement.

The Union Customs Code (UCC) is the rulebook for managing the external borders of the EU’s customs union. Read this fact to find out more.

The Northern Ireland protocol, formally called the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, is the part of the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU that ensures there is no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland as a result of the UK leaving the EU.

This committee is one of 6 UK-EU committees set up by the Withdrawal Agreement to manage the implementation of different parts of that agreement.

To maintain favourable trade terms before the UK stopped benefitting from EU trade agreements in January 2021, the government sought to reach UK-only agreements with many of the same countries.

The transition period is the 11-month grace period agreed by the UK and the EU following the UK’s exit from the bloc on 31 January 2020.