Hello and welcome to the next episode of Beyond Brexit.

Today we're discussing the Brexit Transition Agreement and how this may impact business.

I'm Sally Cosgrove and I'm joined by PWC's Brexit leader Andrew Gray and our Director of Political Relations Anna Wallace. Welcome

to you both.

Hi, Sally.

So Anna, let's start with you. Can I ask that you provide our listeners with some context

and explain what has been announced recently in relation to transition?

Yeah, of course. As we approach the one year to go from Brexit, there's been a few important

announcements. First of all, the announcements around transitions, which is very important to

businesses, but then also the indication from the European Council that we are able to move

into the next phase and start those high level trade discussions.

So if I talk a little bit about what was agreed on transitions first of all, we now know that

that transition period will run until the 31st of December 2020, so about 21 months in total.

We know that to all intents of purposes it will feel very much like being

a member of the EU. We will be staying inside the customs union, we will be staying inside the

single market and freedom of movement will continue during that time. So from a business

point of view, nothing really changes. The big change really is around the political

influence that the UK will have during that period

because we won't have MEPs in the European Parliament and we won't be sort of a member that's able to influence the policy decisions of the European Union during that time.

But as I said, from a business point of view, it will feel very much like

where we are now. Importantly, they also, the European 27 said that the UK would be able to

negotiate its own free trade deals with other countries during that time. That was quite a big

...