BRUSSELS, December 30. /TASS/. The signing of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement is not the end of Brexit, it is just the start of it, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said in an interview with TASS.
The agreement was signed on Wednesday by heads of EU institutions and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson after extensive talks between Brussels and London.
"The fact that there is a deal gave everyone an opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief, but not a very deep one. The devil is in the details, and the ratification of the deal is ahead. On this side of the English Channel, not just 27 EU parliaments need to have their say, but a good 37 of them. In small Belgium alone, the deal will go through 4 parliaments (the federal parliament and three regional parliaments - TASS)," he noted.
"A number of EU states especially affected by Brexit will scrutinize this document under a magnifying glass, namely France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and, of course, Ireland. It is a big question whether they will have time to finish this process in the two months approved by Brussels and London, from January 1 to February 28. For its part, the European Parliament did not hesitate to say already that it will deal with the ratification only during the planned plenary session in March," Chizhov said.
"Supposedly, in the stipulated period, the deal will work in the regime of provisional application, but this is a mutually delicate decision as well. Some experience of the agreement’s implementation will begin to accumulate, and it can be both positive and negative. And this can affect the ratification process," the Russian envoy stated.
What Brexit means for Russia
According to Chizhov, for the majority of countries in the world, including Russia, Brexit would mean a revision of export quotas on the delivery of certain products to the EU market. Before the deal, quotas and tariffs were calculated based on the statistical data provided by 28 states. Now, only 27 states will provide the data. This is not an automatic process, it requires approval, the Russian envoy said.
"In this regard, Russia is in a better position than, say, China, as the range of our export to the EU is not that wide. What will happen to European and US trade is another story. Otherwise, not much will change for Russia in principle. Of course, we can hope that the usually unfriendly voice of the UK will not be heard in the EU and it won’t form part of a united foreign policy position of the union. However, it will still be heard outside of the EU, namely within NATO," he concluded.