The agreement defines the goods, services and processes associated with them. Any provision of goods or services legally put on the market before leaving the EU may be made available to consumers in the UK or in the EU Member States (Article 40-41). The NI protocol, known as “backstop,” is supposed to be temporary and applies unless it is replaced by a future relationship agreement that the parties will attempt to reach by December 31, 2020. The protocol provides that the common travel area and North-South cooperation will continue to a large extent as they do today, as well as the internal electricity market (so that some EU legislation on wholesale electricity markets will continue to apply). The British Parliament approved the draft agreement by adopting on 23 January 2020 the implementing laws (the 2020 Withdrawal Agreement Act) of the European Union (withdrawal agreement). Following the signing of the agreement, the UK Government adopted and tabled the UK`s ratification instrument on 29 January 2020. [7] The agreement was ratified by the Council of the European Union on 30 January 2020, after approval by the European Parliament on 29 January 2020. The UK`s withdrawal from the EU came into force on 31 January 2020 at 11 .m GMT, when the withdrawal agreement came into force in accordance with Article 185. On 13 November 2018, the EU decided that “decisive progress” had been made in the Brexit negotiations, and on 14 November the European Commission and the UK Government published a draft withdrawal agreement as well as three protocols (on the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, the SOVEREIGN territories of the United Kingdom in Cyprus and Gibraltar) and nine annexes. The text of the negotiated withdrawal agreement and the political declaration on the framework for future EU-UK relations were approved by EU heads of state and government at a specially convened European Council on 25 November 2018.

The current EU VAT regime applies to goods shipped or transported from the UK to an EU Member State or, conversely, when shipping or transport began before the end of the transitional period and were subsequently discontinued. Unless the future relationship agreement is made, goods exported after the end of the UK`s passage to the EU and vice versa will be subject to VAT and customs formalities.