| What's Happening? A tumultuous chapter in the U.K.'s national story is coming to a close. After four-and-a-half years, three prime ministers and two general elections, Britain's departure from the European Union's single market and customs union at 11 p.m will end a period of bitter rancor over Europe. Or will it? The U.K.-EU trade deal, agreed on Christmas Eve and passed by Britain's Parliament with hours to spare, averted an acrimonious breakup with the bloc and removed the prospect of tariffs and quotas, a threat that has hung over business since the 2016 referendum. But it left much of the future relationship with the EU unresolved. Read More: The Major Issues the Brexit Deal Leaves Unresolved  The Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the UK and the EU in Downing Street. Photographer: LEON NEAL/AFP For now, businesses are grappling with the immediate complications and likely disruption at the border. Exporters still have to figure out how they will be affected – not only do they face new customs paperwork, but new rules of origin mean products that contain too many materials from overseas may fail to qualify for tariff-free access to the bloc. Financial services firms are stuck in limbo while they wait to find out what access they will have. That may not be settled in the next three months. The derivates market faces challenges despite a last-minute rule-tweak. Even though the U.K. and EU managed to patch up a temporary fix to keep data flowing, companies are still waiting for a more permanent solution. But these are issues for the short term. In the longer run, the political questions will be bigger. Crucially, the deal doesn't set the future relationship in stone: if the U.K. wants to diverge from EU rules it can – but at the cost of the EU imposing tariffs. That introduces a whole new dimension to British political debate. What will a future government do with that freedom? What will an acceptable trade-off look like? The deal may not end the Conservative party's own three-decade war over Europe. Even as they backed the deal, longtime Euroskeptics in the prime minister's party pointed to clauses in it that allow for a review after four years, or even for termination with 12 months' notice. Johnson may only have brought himself a temporary truce in that internal feud. One thing the deal definitely won't change is geography. Europe will still be Britain's nearest neighbor, and the two sides will have to figure out a relationship of sorts. That could take British politics back to another era, when the nation was still trying to determine the basis of its relationship with Europe. Our Brexit future, then, could look eerily like the 1950s and 60s. — Edward Evans Brexit: What You Need to KnowBeyond Brexit Click here for the latest maps and data on the spread of coronavirus. Sign up here for our coronavirus newsletter, and subscribe to our podcast. Watch Bloomberg Quicktake, our new streaming news service with a global view and an informed take. Want to keep up with Brexit?You can follow us @Brexit on Twitter, and listen to Bloomberg Westminster every weekday. Share the Brexit Bulletin: Colleagues, friends and family can sign up here. For full EU coverage, try the Brussels Edition. Like getting the Brexit Bulletin? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and gain expert analysis from exclusive subscriber-only newsletters. | 
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