Today’s trade deal with the EU is welcome. When Labour was elected, we said that we would reduce barriers to trade and economic growth, and we meant it. Just ten months after the election and Labour are delivering on this promise to the British people.
Before I was elected as MP for Wrexham, and since, different businesses both large and small, locally and regionally, have told me time and time again how the Conservative Government’s Brexit deal had made their daily experience as a business more challenging: more expensive, more difficult, more barriers, higher costs. This had led to some being forced to close. We have seen the impact on our own pockets with food prices rising and hospitality businesses struggling as well as those who previously exported to the EU.
In terms of global trade, Britain now has deals with three of the largest markets in the world – the USA, the EU and India.
The deal includes:
- Making it easier for food and drink to be imported and exported by reducing the red tape. This agreement will have no time limit, giving vital certainty to businesses.
- Some routine checks on animal and plant products will be removed completely.
- Closer co-operation on emissions through linking our respective Emissions Trading System.
- British steel exports are protected from new EU rules and restrictive tariffs, through a bespoke arrangement for the UK.
- British holidaymakers will be able to use more eGates in Europe.
- Introduction of ‘pet passports’ for UK cats and dogs.
- The EU-UK security and defence partnership means that British firms will be treated as European, so can benefit from defence procurement.
I welcome the agreement to explore access to Erasmus + as well as a Youth Mobility scheme; it is important that young people have access to opportunities that previous generations enjoyed and were denied to them for too long.
I also welcome the co-operation on defence. The EU and the UK share the same challenging security environment, and both have vital interests in the peace, security and stability of Europe and beyond.
Andrew Ranger MP said “This agreement meets the red lines set out in the government’s manifesto – no return to the single market, no return to the customs union, and no return to freedom of movement. What this agreement does do has been welcomed across a range of sectors from energy to SMEs to food and drink to universities and further education. The EU is our biggest trading partner, and this deal helps to right the many wrongs of the previous government.”
