On March 19, 2018, the UK and EU released a draft withdrawal agreement highlighting the progress made between the two parties on the terms of a transition period that will usher the UK out of the EU. In this document, the UK and EU negotiators reached agreement on the following issues:

• The transition period will run from March 29, 2019 (Brexit Day) to December 31, 2020;

• A joint committee will be created to implement the withdrawal agreement, which will have the ability to adopt decisions that will be binding on both the UK and the EU (without oversight by either the UK or EU governments);

• The UK will be permitted during the transition period to negotiate trade agreements that could come into force as early as January 1, 2021;

• The UK will not take full control of its waters with regards to fisheries policy on Brexit Day, as it will effectively remain under the Common Fisheries Policy until the end of the transition period;

• The European Court of Justice will maintain jurisdiction over EU law and EU citizens during the transition period.

There are, however, further issues that remain open, including the status of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. While the draft withdrawal agreement states that Northern Ireland would effectively remain within the EU customs union if no other solution is reached in order to avoid a hard border, negotiations to find another solution will be ongoing to avoid this “backstop option.”

This draft withdrawal agreement is conditional on the agreement of a final withdrawal treaty. Now that draft withdrawal agreement is in place, however, the UK and EU may commence negotiations on an agreement governing the future relationship between the two parties once the transition period ends on December 31, 2019. Both sides are pushing to finish negotiations by October 2018, so that the UK Parliament and the EU Member States have sufficient time to ratify it prior to Brexit Day on March 29, 2019.