It is understood the Executive will meet on Monday to discuss the trade deal.
A deal was reached on Christmas Eve after month of wrangling between the EU and UK Government.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the agreement reached with Brussels was a good deal for the whole of Europe .
DUP leader Mrs Foster said the deal marked the start of a new era in the relationship between the UK and the EU and in Northern Ireland we will want to maximise the opportunities the new arrangements provide for our local economy .
Her party played a key role in the Brexit process as part of their confidence and supply deal with former Prime Minister Theresa May s Government.
The deal was secured on Christmas Eve, a week before current trading arrangements expire. A UK source said the deal delivered “everything that the British public was promised during the 2016 referendum”. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen were in close contact over recent days to help get the deal over the line. But negotiations led by the EU’s Michel Barnier and the UK’s Lord Frost continued throughout the day as final details were hammered out. Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted a picture of himself smiling with both thumbs lifted in the air.
| UPDATED: 15:08, Thu, Dec 24, 2020
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French President Emmanuel Macron has been particularly intransigent with Brexit Britain. According to senior political sources, because the French leader is facing domestic threats to his re-election, he would have rather seen the talks fail than agree to a bad deal that could have tempted other EU states to leave the bloc. Europe s power to protect itself from major global rivals, pandemics, economic crises, migration and climate change will be a major electoral argument for Mr M
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Photo: AFP
Disputes over fishing rights and future business competition rules have been the major hurdles to agreement during months of often fraught talks.
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg said Downing Street now seemed very confident of a deal, with negotiators thought to be thrashing out the final details.
The official announcement of a deal is expected on Thursday morning (UK time).
The document is thought to be around 2000 pages long, with both sides having until 31 December - when the UK leaves EU trading rules - get it approved by parliamentarians.
I
t has come as no surprise that, much like Brexit itself, reaction to the UK and EU finally agreeing a new trade deal was split down the middle.
After much anticipation it was finally announced on Christmas Eve that a trade deal had been secured.
A Downing Street source insisted that “everything that the British public was promised during the 2016 referendum and in the general election last year is delivered by this deal”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted a picture of himself smiling with both thumbs lifted in the air. “The deal is done,” he wrote.
Former Prime Minister Theresa May welcomed the news that a deal had been secured.