With just a day to spare, lawmakers voted 521-73 in favor of the agreement sealed between British and European negotiators last week. The trade deal, hammered out in more than nine months of tense negotiations and sealed on Christmas Eve, will ensure that Britain and the 27-nation EU can continue to trade in goods without tariffs or quotas. The Conservative Party’s powerful “Euroskeptic” wing, which fought for years for the seemingly long-shot goal of taking Britain out of the EU, backed the deal. She noted that the deal protected trade in goods but did not cover services, which account for 80% of Britain’s economy. Advertisement“We have a deal in trade, which benefits the EU, but not a deal in services, which would have benefited the U.K.,” May said.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 30, 2020 15:44 UTC