EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier, surrounded by anti-Brexit protesters, leaving a meeting in London on November 30, 2020. -

Matt Dunham / AP / SIPA

The countdown is on and nobody knows what will be at the end of that home stretch.

The British government, which now has less than a month to reach a post-Brexit deal with the Europeans, on Tuesday urged companies to prepare for the major changes that will come in any case on December 31.

The final negotiations with the European Union to reach a free trade agreement have still not been concluded despite the approach of the end of the transition period, which will mark the departure of the United Kingdom from the single market.

“Whatever the outcome of our negotiations with the EU, there are certain changes that companies must prepare for now,” warned Michael Gove, the minister responsible for coordinating government action.

Four weeks from the deadline, "there is no time to waste".

"An independent trading nation"

As London and the EU make final efforts to overcome their differences and agree on their future relationship, Enterprise Minister Alok Sharma said he wrote letters to nearly five million of them to warn them of the challenges ahead.

"Businesses need to ensure that they are fully prepared for the new rules and opportunities that being an independent trading nation will bring," he said.

The government has also started to set up an operations center to control the movement of goods and people across the border.

The center, which will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, aims to provide real-time information allowing the authorities to react quickly to limit disruption at the border.

From July, imports into the UK from the EU will for the first time require security declarations, a possible cause of delays.

Soon WTO rules?

In the event of a “no deal”, trade between the United Kingdom and the EU will be governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization, synonymous with costly tariffs that can cause an economic shock.

But even in the event of an agreement without tariffs or quotas, companies will be subject to new and time-consuming administrative procedures and new controls.

The negotiations, currently led in London by Michel Barnier and David Frost, are still stumbling over the guarantees demanded of the British in terms of competition, the way of settling disputes in the future agreement and the access of European fishermen to British waters.

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