Shadow Cabinet Secretary for the Europe, Mark Isherwood AM, has hit out at the First Minister for his repeated negative comments over Brexit.
Responding to this week’s Statement by the First Minister, ‘Trade Policy - The Issues for Wales’, Mr Isherwood criticised the Welsh Labour Leader’s “false propaganda message that the UK Government wants a ‘hard Brexit’, when it has instead repeatedly stated that it seeks a Free Trade Deal with the EU.”
Speaking in the Chamber on Tuesday, he said:
“Yesterday, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said he respected the UK's decision to rule out any form of long-term Customs Union, but he did add - and I'm sure the First Minister will be alluding to this - that, without a Customs Union and outside the Single Market, 'barriers to trade in goods and services are unavoidable', which, of course, is exactly the position we would expect at the start of negotiations towards an agreed deal and just as apparently uncompromising as the position taken at the start of negotiations on the stage 1 deal, which were successfully concluded with compromise on both sides before Christmas.
“In response, the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union in the UK Government, David Davis, yesterday said that he wanted a free trade deal with the EU, but also the freedom to strike deals with other countries where trade opportunities are growing. Well, given that the First Minister has repeatedly stated that he accepts the outcome of the referendum and believes this was more a protest vote than about control of borders, laws, trade and money, will he confirm to the people of Wales that continued membership of the Single Market and Customs Union would mean that the UK could not strike trade deals with countries outside the EU, other than through the EU?”
Mr Isherwood stressed that according to both Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the Office for National Statistics figures, and subject to small adjustments for finance, travel and transport, some 90 per cent of the UK economy and 85 per cent of the Welsh economy is not involved in exporting to the EU.
He added “The First Minister talks about his belief that continued full and unfettered access to Europe’s single market is vital to Wales’s forward economic interests, and says, 'We remain to be convinced that leaving a Customs Union with the EU is in our interests, at least for the foreseeable future.' What do you mean by 'at least for the foreseeable future'? Is that simply a transition period, or do you have something else in mind.
“As you indicate, you, 'welcome the UK Government’s recognition in their White Paper, Preparing for our Future UK Trade policy, that Devolved Governments (and...legislatures) have an important role in shaping future trade policy', but, in evidence yesterday from you to the House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, you said you ‘don't think we should have a veto - it's hugely important that we have consultation’. And, of course, in your seven years in office, you have fostered the least diverse export economy in the UK, leaving Wales more reliant than any other nation on EU trade.
“So, what discussions is the Welsh Government, official to official, having with the UK Government, which I know are going on in detail, regarding Frameworks, regarding a UK single market with agreed approaches on a range of matters, of course, including trade? Perhaps you could provide us with a progress report on discussions that are clearly already happening.”
Mr Isherwood commented: “His ranting response comprised yet more rehashed doom and gloom from this ‘Fake News’ First Minister, pumping out the false propaganda message that the UK Government want a ‘hard Brexit’, when it has instead repeatedly stated that it seeks a Free Trade Deal with the EU. With Labour in Brexit chaos, it’s a bit rich for him to talk of ‘chaos at the heart of the UK Government’ . He should come clean and admit that what he is calling for would mean that we had effectively not left the EU at all.”