BRUSSELS (AN) — Breaking what seemed an interminable Brexit deadlock, Britain reached a tentative free-trade deal on Thursday to lessen the chaos of its departure from the European Union, the world's biggest trading bloc.
The deal came only one week before the deadline, ensuring that businesses in the United Kingdom and the remaining 27 nations in the E.U., the second-largest economy after the United States, can keep trading without tariffs or quotas when an 11-month transition period for the U.K.'s departure ends on New Year's Day. Britain officially left the E.U. on January 31.