London (AFP)
Turning its back on nearly half a century in the European fold, the United Kingdom began on Friday, at the same time as 2021, its new life after Brexit, without immediate disruption but with many unknowns.
Great architect of Brexit, Prime Minister Boris Johnson promised in the Daily Telegraph "a year of change and hope", four and a half years after the referendum that tore the UK apart, touting the free trade agreement concluded just before Christmas with Brussels.
Official since the end of January and ending Thursday at 11:00 p.m. local time and GMT at the end of the application of European rules after a transition period, Brexit will offer "opportunities to transform" the country, according to him.
- Everything is normal" -
Nearly 200 trucks also used the Channel Tunnel at night, "without any problem" despite the reinstatement of customs formalities, according to its operator Getlink.
Romanian driver Alexandru Mareci, 29, went the other way, arriving in Dover at dawn with his truck loaded with 23 tonnes of Moroccan tomatoes.
"Everything was normal," he told AFP.
"Of course, how many people do you know who work for the New Year? We do not know how (Brexit) will go in the future", he notes, admitting not knowing the new formalities introduced by the British authorities for transit through the south of England.
If the trade agreement concluded in extremis with Brussels does not provide for quotas or customs duties and avoids a devastating "no deal", the upheaval is real.
Free movement of goods and people alike to cross the border unimpeded has ceased - except between Spain and the British enclave of Gibraltar, as well as between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
- "Mayhem" -
Despite these new constraints with the main market of the United Kingdom, the conservative Boris Johnson dangled to his compatriots a new era full of promise and a strengthened place in the world for his country, as champion of free trade.
With the presidency of the G7 and the organization of the great COP26 climate conference this year, 2021 will be "a very important year" for the influence of the United Kingdom, he assured on Twitter.
Trade agreements have already been signed with some sixty countries, including Japan, but the coveted compromise with the United States could come up against the departure of Donald Trump, a convinced Brexiter unlike his successor at the White House, Joe Biden.
In the immediate future, it is a country gravely bereaved by the pandemic - more than 73,500 dead, one of the worst results in Europe - and struck by its worst economic crisis in three centuries which has left European orbit.
Boris Johnson must also turn the page on a stormy saga that took him to the top of the political scale, but tore the British apart.
The unity of the Kingdom is cracked, in particular on the side of Scotland which voted by a large majority to stay in the EU and dreams of independence.
And if calm reigns Friday, disruptions around the ports are anticipated with the resumption of activity at full speed next week, if the new formalities slow down traffic and lengthen the lines of trucks.
Thus, the port of Holyhead, an important terminal in Wales, near Ireland, could experience "delays over the next few weeks", warned the Welsh road information center on Twitter.
Six loads were refused there on Friday because they were not in order.
"We are now going to see the € 80 billion of trade across the Irish Sea between the UK and Ireland disrupted by a lot more checks and declarations, bureaucracy and red tape, and costs and delays ", regretted the head of Irish diplomacy, Simon Coveney, on the BBC.
In Ireland, a transport association has said it fears weeks of "mess" in ports.
Unlike the EU, the British government has decided to gradually implement customs controls, which will not affect all goods until July.
To avoid any unfair competition, the free trade agreement also provides for sanctions and compensatory measures in the event of non-compliance with its rules on state aid, the environment, labor law and taxation. .
© 2021 AFP