Close to 11 months after Brexit, and seven days before the so-called transition period ends on 31 December, a trade deal that will define the future relationship between the UK and the EU has been signed off by British prime minister Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

Negotiators and legal experts worked through the night on Wednesday to get a text ready by the time the two leaders spoke on the phone on Thursday afternoon.

"We now have a fair & balanced agreement with the UK. It will protect our EU interests, ensure fair competition & provide predictability for our fishing communities," said von der Leyen in a tweet. Johnson issued a more succinct "The deal is done".

The BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, who is known to have close ties to Boris Johnson (she was the only journalist granted an interview in Luxembourg after he failed to attend a press conference with Xavier Bettel in September 2019) said via Twitter the British prime minister and Ursula von der Leyen held four calls on Wednesday to hash out details of the agreement.

According to the BBC, the agreement will allow almost all food and plant exports from Great Britain to continue. However, seed potatoes are not included in the deal, which has angered Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon--The National reports that seed potatoes are a "multi-million-pound Scottish export".

But the UK has compromised on the crucial issue of fishing rights. The deal apparently sees the EU hand back 25% of the value of fish it catches in British waters over a transition period set to last five and a half years.

The Financial Times’ political editor George Parker tweeted that the deal is the first trade “in history where barriers go up, not down BUT it is great news for business after months of uncertainty”. Nevertheless, the value of the pound has been rising as news of an imminent deal broke.

Meanwhile, The Guardian reported in its rolling coverage that the European Research Group, led by Conservative MPs of the ilk of Jacob Reese-Mogg who have pressed most for a hard line from the UK government during the negotiations, say they will call on lawyers to analyse any agreed treaty before deciding on whether to give their support.