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From Fareed Zakaria's newsletter:

Brexit: Done?

In 2019, Boris Johnson won the job of UK prime minister on a campaign slogan of “Get Brexit Done.” Has current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak just achieved it?

The UK and EU agreed on Monday—pending a vote in Britain’s Parliament, promised by Sunak—to alter the so-called “Northern Ireland protocol,” a major point of tension over Brexit’s finalized form. That had established a customs border in the Irish Sea, which separates the island of Great Britain from Northern Ireland, as an alternative to establishing such a border on land, between UK-member-nation Northern Ireland and EU-member-country Ireland. (The issue remains contentious and has raised fears of violence. Whether there should be any border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, after all, was the subject of a civil war and a decades-long insurgency known as the Troubles.)

As the Financial Times explains in detail, the newly agreed-to “Windsor Framework” would sort goods flowing from Britain to Northern Ireland into “red” and “green” channels, based on the likelihood they’d end up in Ireland (and thus within the EU). The former category would be checked before entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. “Parcels to friends or family (in Northern Ireland) and online deliveries from Great Britain will not require customs paperwork,” the paper writes, “ending another significant source of aggravation for Northern Ireland residents. Businesses using approved parcel carriers will have simplified customs procedures.”

The deal is being celebrated by many. The Economist urges support for it, noting a dearth of workable alternatives from “(h)ardline Tory MPs.” At CNN Business, Hanna Ziady reports potential economic benefits, as the existing arrangement has “upended supply chains (and) raised costs for businesses.” In an editorial, the Financial Times calls this “a significant moment for post-Brexit Britain.” The New Statesman’s Andrew Marr declares, “Rishi Sunak has become Prime Minister. I exaggerate, but only slightly.”

Or, Not So Fast?

Not everyone is wowed. In a Telegraph op-ed, Sherelle Jacobs argues the deal enshrines “Northern Ireland’s fate as a vassal state of Brussels,” as the EU will retain a say over how all of this is put into practice, and thus over Northern Ireland’s trade policies. The Spectator’s Freddy Gray lampoons the uncertainty (and the history of wooden jargon surrounding Brexit), arguing for instance that a so-called “Stormont brake”—included in the new deal to give Northern Ireland’s devolved government a chance to reject EU mandates—might or might not be so meaningful, in practice. Multiple observers have cautioned that it’s not clear whether Brexiteer MPs and Northern Ireland’s top unionist party will line up behind the deal, as the details are examined more fully. The New Statesman’s Marr notes warily the bitterness that any Irish Sea border could incur from unionist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland.

Still, some who back the deal hope it will deliver the UK from a miasmic political era dominated by Brexit and its aftermath—along with, they hope, broader geopolitical windfalls.

“With luck, the deal may yet begin a normalisation of UK-EU relations, and of UK politics,” the FT writes in its editorial. The Economist offers similar sentiments, writing that the new deal “paves the way for much improved UK-EU relations. … It should bolster security and foreign-policy co-operation, something that matters more since (Russian President) Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Better relations with France could boost bilateral co-operation to deter migrants crossing the channel in small boats. And the deal would do much to repair Britain’s relations with America, whose president cares deeply about peace in Northern Ireland.”