LONDON — Should Prime Minister Boris Johnson persuade Parliament to pass his Brexit deal — to “get Brexit done,” as he promised — it would seem to bring a successful end to the most difficult chapter of his career. But it would signal only the beginning of another tortuous process to fully extract Britain from the European Union, one that could collapse next year in the same sort of failed divorce from the bloc that members of Parliament have tried so hard lately to avoid. Lawmakers are now trying to amend Mr. Johnson’s plan to hedge against that result, an effort that could help insulate Britain’s already-stagnant economy but could also shatter the tenuous coalition behind the prime minister’s Brexit deal. The problem is that Mr. Johnson’s deal with Brussels, while setting the terms of Britain’s departure from the European Union, resolves none of the fraught questions about the country’s long-term relationship with the bloc, its biggest trading partner. The government would have no more than a few months to settle those questions in a new trade agreement with Brussels, a process that typically takes years.

Source: International New York Times October 23, 2019 21:33 UTC