Brexit: first test with the resumption of activity after the holidays
Audio 01:31
At Covent Garden market in London as in the rest of the UK, wholesalers and suppliers fear a shortage of fruit and vegetables due to Brexit.
AP - Alberto Pezzali
Text by: RFI Follow
8 min
The UK is entering its first week outside the EU after finally breaking ties on January 1.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has dangled a new era full of promise for his country, which he wants to make a champion of free trade.
But for the time being, it is a country gravely bereaved by the pandemic and hit by its worst economic crisis in three centuries that has left European orbit.
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With our special
correspondent in Dover,
Anissa El Jabri
and our correspondent in London,
Muriel Delcroix
On January 1, last Friday, the United Kingdom concretely left the European Union this time.
There is indeed an agreement on the movement of goods: no customs duties or quotas, but controls for the entry and exit of goods.
The main axis in Great Britain is the road that links Dover across the Channel and London.
It is therefore this Monday that the new procedures will be concretely implemented in Dover in a smooth transition.
The truck lines, the traffic jams in December, we shouldn't see them again right away.
On this rainy and cold Monday in January, there are only a few dozen vehicles still parked here, next to customs right on the port.
There are fewer needs in recent weeks: the British have stockpiled.
220 million forms per year
For those who will in any case cross the border to Europe in the next few hours, it will take patience.
There are many formalities: you have to declare what you are transporting upstream on the Net.
This would represent 220 million forms to fill out each year, according to the estimate of an employer association of road hauliers.
In the other direction, however, traffic will remain very fluid for several months.
Controls are postponed to July.
Government objective: to postpone the real Brexit test until later.
Because at the moment, the country is struggling in a
second wave of the very hard pandemic
: hospitals are overflowing and caregivers are ringing the alarm bell.
Boris Johnson announced it this Sunday: he will further tighten the restrictions.
►
To listen: Brexit: the winners and the losers
A "
good thing
" or an "
economic suicide
"
If the transition to Dover is taking place, for the moment, smoothly, the wounds left by Brexit, which tore the British apart, are not yet closed.
A few steps from the large Borough Market in London, three friends are chatting away.
The young woman is Hungarian, her London companion and their friend.
it was enough to release the word Brexit to sow discord.
“
I don't care!
declares the young Hungarian.
If the UK can be independent from Europe, I think that's a good thing.
"His companion reacts:"
Really, do you think that?
I believe our relationship has just ended live on French radio!
[Laughs]
"
Boris Johnson's "panache"
The surprise passed, this business lawyer explains why he voted against it and cannot get over it: “
Supporting Brexit was madness, economic suicide.
Our nation has been betrayed.
It's like asking for a divorce from your wife while asking her if we can stay with her… It's delusional!
"His friend agrees:"
Independence for London?
We are going to break away and join Europe by an elaborate system of bridges and tunnels!
"
But further on, a couple of retirees, him, is full of praise on what Boris Johnson has just accomplished: “
Without his panache, we would not have arrived.
It's a bit like a light at the end of the tunnel!
"Says the lady, supported by her husband:"
It is to Boris Johnson's credit to have gone to the end.
He was the man for the job.
And as far as the agreement is concerned, we couldn't get better than that.
"
►
See also: Brexit: the United Kingdom opens a new page in its history, the British divided
The concern of City employees
Boris Johnson will have been the Brexit man.
It will now have to be that of reconciliation, a task that risks being long and winding.
Example in the business world.
Indeed, the trade agreement signed between London and Brussels gives pride of place to fishing and the movement of goods, while little or nothing is planned for services, which nevertheless represent 80% of the British economy.
Many City employees are not hiding their concerns.
As the leading European financial center, London is also an unrivaled center for legal services.
For this London lawyer, whose firm works mainly for banks, his position is now weakened: “
Much of the City's success is based on the compatibility of legal judgments across Europe.
The predominance of English law in the drafting of contracts is in danger of disappearing.
For now, we have bilateral agreements, but what if they are not renewed?
Why choose English law to draft your contracts if it is not compatible with European law?
For me, Brexit is a shame…
”
"
We will see day by day
"
Another worry: the City lost its precious access to the single market on January 1, a big handicap for many of its players.
“
We used to serve our European customers from London and today we can no longer do so because we no longer have the European passport, so it will be very complicated,
laments a young French woman, employed by a large American bank.
There are a lot of financial support professions that will also move.
In my company, it is the salespeople who moved on the continent because from January 1 to continue talking to their customers, they had to be in the EU.
In the future, we were not told we were staying in London.
In my job, I am told that we will see from day to day ...
"
So far 7,500 jobs have been moved to the continent - far from the 250,000 predicted by the London Stock Exchange in 2016. But the City fears long-term erosion.
►
To listen: United Kingdom: the City, largely forgotten by Brexit, sees its future uncertain
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