Running to around 1200 pages, the deal agreed between Britain and the EU will form the bedrock of our future relationship for many years to come.

But what exactly has been agreed across trade, fishing, security and other areas of cooperation? Who has given ground and in which areas? And what will the deal mean for millions of people whose lives and livelihoods are interconnected with that of our largest neighbours and trading partner?

Level playing field
One of the unique aspects of the agreement, reflecting Britain’s former EU membership, its economic size and close geographical proximity is the so-called level playing field mechanism.

It commits both the UK and EU to maintain equivalent and common standards on social, labour and environment regulation. However, the deal does not force the UK to match every new EU regulation like-for-like and standards are not defined in reference to EU law, which was a key demand of the British. Instead, the deal contains something called a “rebalancing clause” that is designed to resolve disputes between the two sides. This novel element has two parts and has not been used in free trade treaties before.

The first is that if one side believes that the actions of the other have distorted fair competition then they can apply to a neutral arbitration committee to impose limited tariffs to redress the balance of unfair competition and “level the playing field”.