I’d like to thank my colleague Neil Hamilton for proposing this debate today. Those who opposed the UK leaving the EU are determined to find any possible way of keeping us shackled to an unelected, undemocratic bureaucracy, overburdened by restrictive regulations and unable to control our own borders—all for the sake of access to the so-called single market. The First Minister visited Norway last week to explore ways that Wales could emulate the Norwegian model. The problem is, First Minister, the people of Wales did not vote on the 23 June last year to leave the EU and then immediately become an affiliate member. We voted to free ourselves of the millstone that EU membership places around our necks. We voted to free ourselves from an increasingly insular and shrinking trading block, and we voted overwhelmingly to reject freedom of movement. We buy more from the single market than we sell and the deficit is growing. Why then should we be overburdened with the regulations and restrictions that membership of the single market would impose upon us? In the run-up to the vote last year, the then President of the United States tried to influence the vote by claiming the UK would not get a trade deal with the US. Thankfully, the people of the UK ignored him and we will soon have a different occupant of the White House who is keen to increase trading links with the UK. The Republican Party is now in charge in the US and they want to see a US-UK trade deal. They want to trade with us, they want to trade with us and I’m all for trade. I’m all for trade. I’m all for the benefit of Wales trading with other countries.

When we finally throw off the shackles of the EU membership we will be free to pursue beneficial trade agreements with the wider world. Wales’s exports to the EU only account for 41 per cent of our world exports and that has been declining over the past four years. Our trade deals need to be ambitious, looking at a global market. We don’t need to overburden ourselves with red tape just to maintain access to the single market. We have to embrace free trade with the whole world, rather than solely focusing on an increasingly insular trading block.

As well as pursuing closer trading ties with the US we have to be ambitiously forging closer links with countries in Latin America and Asia.The economies of the countries in Asia have seen exponential expansion over the last half a century, yet the UK’s economy, and that of the EU, has seen lacklustre growth over the same period. As soon as we are free from EU control we should be tapping into these markets.

Wales is the country I was born in and have lived in all my life. I respect the vote of the people of Wales and I will fight for every penny to make Wales prosperous. I am optimistic about our future outside the EU. I would suggest that the First Minister would find his time much better spent if he were to pursue trading links with the likes of China, India and Brazil, rather than seeking ways of maintaining our ties to the EU. Thank you.