RPT - UK 'Making Huge Strides' In Using Trade Freedoms Unlocked By Brexit - British Expert

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd February, 2023) The United Kingdom "has made huge strides" in exploiting the trade and business freedoms opened up by the country's withdrawal from the European Union, with its agricultural sector gaining the most from Brexit, Francis John Cole, a former European Commission civil servant and British political expert, told Sputnik.

"Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, rightly stresses that Britain has made huge strides in harnessing the freedoms unlocked by Brexit ... The European red tape for business has disappeared, the farming system is free from the European handouts of the costly and inefficient European agricultural policy," Cole, who was a close adviser to Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK right-wing party advocating a no-deal Brexit, said.

Following its exit from the European Union, the UK has finally embarked on the path towards recovery of its agricultural policy, which was most efficient before the country joined the bloc in 1973, Cole said, though he added that it would take some time to achieve the goal of full restoration.

In this regard, the British expert specifically noted the benefits that Brexit has brought to aquaculture and the fishing industry.

"Fishermen in Scotland don't complain anymore. British fishermen make money again and their catches are not controlled by Brussels anymore. Britain has signed trade deals with over 70 countries, it is quite an achievement," Cole told Sputnik.

At the same time, the expert admitted that London had encountered certain difficulties when adapting to new trade rules with the EU. In total, as many as seven freeports, a kind of special economic zone with special tax and customs regulations, have been created after Brexit.

"It takes time to re-organize Britain, but it works. Britain is an independent nation again, and the economy grows again," Cole said.

In June 2016, 51.8% of UK citizens voted in favor of terminating the country's membership of the EU, against 48.1% of those who voted for London to stay in the union. On January 31, 2020, the country finally left the bloc after 47 years of membership. A transition period continued until December 31, 2021, during which the UK was no longer a member of the union but still a member of the EU single market and customs union. London and Brussels managed to negotiate an agreement on trade and cooperation during that period.