DW's Conflict Zone confronts Andrew Bowie, a vice-chairman of Britain's Conservatives, on UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Brexit promises. Bowie hit back at charges that the PM showed "contempt for the British public."
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Andrew Bowie on Conflict Zone
26:06
A leading member of Britain's Conservative Party has acknowledged that there are difficulties ahead as a result of the recent free trade deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union, but defended the agreement as one that is beneficial for both parties.
"Yes, there are going to be teething problems. And yes, there is red tape at the minute," said Andrew Bowie, a Conservative Party vice-chairman.
But, he explained, "this was a good deal for Britain, a good deal for the EU."
Talking from Aberdeen, Scotland, to DW’s Conflict Zone host Tim Sebastian, Bowie added that the "scaremongering and the stories about the queues at Dover and the queues at Calais and holdups have come as naught."
The EU and the UK clinched a free trade deal for the post-Brexit era on Christmas Eve after what EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as a "long and winding road."
The deal sealed the UK’s exit from the bloc and avoided resorting to potentially damaging World Trade Organization trading terms.
'Manifest error'
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has praised the deal, explaining it allowed Britain to take back control of its laws and its destiny.
But Bowie defended the prime minister and stressed that Johnson "has been absolutely clear all the way along."
"The tariff barriers that are in place are not insurmountable," he added.
The Conservative Party politician went on to say that the deal is "good for business, good for trade," even after Sebastian pointed out that retailers are talking about the biggest imposition of red tape in 50 years.
And he emphasized that the agreement "guarantees certainty for where we are heading as a United Kingdom, where our relationship will be with the European Union, so that business can go on and plan for the next few years and indeed decades as we move forward."
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'Contempt for the British public'
Bowie hit back at charges that the PM had repeatedly misled his citizens regarding what the deal meant for them. "The prime minister and the British government absolutely show nothing at all like contempt for the British public, we treat them with a great deal of respect.
"Of course, it sat uncomfortably with me, the talk of breaking international law, but we very much hoped it wouldn’t come to that, and it hasn't."
Sebastian also pressed Bowie on Johnson's statement that the UK had been able to take back control of "every jot and tittle" of its regulations "in a way that is complete and unfettered," pointing to the fact that Northern Ireland is, in reality, fettered by its obligation to abide by EU single market rules.
What's in the EU-UK Brexit trade deal?
The Brexit trade agreement is meant to ensure the United Kingdom's smooth departure from one of the world's biggest trading blocs. DW explores its key provisions.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Kirk
Zero tariffs
The Brexit agreement has secured zero tariffs or quotas on goods traded once the United Kingdom exits the EU single market and customs union. This ensures a seamless trade transition in January 2021, with lower prices of basic goods for consumers. Negotiators have also reached specific facilitation arrangements for key industries such as wine, organics, automotive pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
Image: Aaron Chown/AFP/Getty Images
Visa-free travel, social security benefits
Freedom of movement, including the right to work, study, start a business or live in the EU and UK will end. But the agreement provides visa-free travel for short-term visits up to 90 days. It also ensures that current UK and EU residents of each other's territories are able to retain their rights to work, as well as benefits such as pensions, parental leave and health care, among others.
Image: picture-alliance/empics/S. Parsons
EU-UK fisheries agreement
The UK will become an independent coastal state and face customs and food safety checks on its EU exports. But the agreement ensures sustainable management of shared fish stocks and quotas in EU and UK waters, in a transition period of 5 1/2 years. During this time, reciprocal access to fish remains unchanged. Afterwards, the two sides will have to reevaluate the situation for a new agreement.
Image: Danny Lawson/empics/picture alliance
Aviation safety and security cooperation
As UK passenger planes will lose access to a free EU aviation market, the agreement ensures cooperation between both sides on aviation safety, security and air traffic management. It provides aviation cargo with unlimited point-to-point traffic between UK and EU airports, but also to other countries — known as fifth freedom traffic rights.
Image: Markus Mainka/picture alliance
Some trade in services salvaged
Automatic recognition of professional qualifications for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, engineers and other professionals is set to end between the EU and UK. But the trade agreement ensures fair treatment for service suppliers or investors. It also removes unjustified barriers to digital trade and allows for open procurement markets for UK or EU bidders.
Image: Maciek Musialek/NurPhoto/picture alliance
Energy cooperation
The UK will leave the EU's internal energy market, the European Atomic Energy Community and will be out of bloc's Emissions Trading System. But the two sides have agreed to guarantees on energy supply security and offshore energy cooperation in the North Sea. The Brexit agreement also features enforceable commitments toward the Paris climate deal and seeks to link EU and UK carbon pricing regimes.
Image: Gareth Fuller/empics/picture alliance
UK remains in science research programs
In education, research and technology, the UK will abandon programs such as the Erasmus university program and the Galileo satellite system. But through the Brexit agreement, the UK will remain a part of five key programs: Horizon Europe, the EURATOM Research and Training Program, ITER (fusion test facility), Copernicus Earth monitoring system and EU Satellite Surveillance and Tracking system.
Image: Chris Ison/empics/picture alliance
Truck transport rights
UK truck operators will lose the right to conduct unlimited cross-trade in the EU, but the Brexit agreement ensures unlimited point-to-point access between the EU and the UK. It ensures full transit rights across each other's territories and grants the right to perform up to two extra operations within them. Working conditions, road safety and fair competition provisions are also included.
Image: Gareth Fuller/PA/empics/picture alliance
Continued cooperation with Europol, Eurojust
The UK will leave agencies such as Europol and Eurojust, and will lose access to the EU's sensitive databases in areas of security and justice. But the Brexit agreement ensures continued cooperation between the UK and these agencies. It also includes mechanisms for quick data exchange of passenger, DNA, fingerprint, vehicle and criminal record information between the UK and the EU.
Image: Imago Images/AFLO/Y. Nakao
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Under the Northern Ireland Protocol, Northern Ireland is kept in the EU's single market for goods and applies EU customs rules at its ports.
Bowie responded by saying that the prime minister "achieved the United Kingdom leaving the EU as one United Kingdom with the best of both worlds for Northern Ireland."
"Businesses in Northern Ireland who actually, I think, would have the best of both worlds, is something we should be cheered, and not something that we should be critical, about," he added.
"What we have achieved is something that most people thought was unachievable," he concluded.
"We've managed to do it with very little obstruction on trade. We've managed to do it as one."