Diolch. We celebrate the fact that the National Assembly for Wales is the national Parliament of Wales and I’m pleased to move amendments 1 and 2, noting that the UK Government’s February 2017 policy paper, ‘The United Kingdom’s exit from, and new partnership with, the European Union’, states:

‘we have already committed that no decisions currently taken by the devolved administrations will be removed from them and we will use the opportunity of bringing decision making back to the UK to ensure that more decisions are devolved.’

The Prime Minister has been very clear that she wants a bespoke deal that works for the whole of the UK, embracing the most tariff- and barrier-free trade possible with our European neighbours. As the Prime Minister said in her January Lancaster House speech,

‘being out of the EU but a member of the single market would mean complying with the EU’s rules and regulations that implement…the “4 freedoms” of goods, capital, services and people.’

She added:

‘It would to all intents and purposes mean not leaving the EU at all. And that is why both sides in the referendum campaign made it clear that a vote to leave the EU would be a vote to leave the single market.’

‘Instead’, she said,

‘we seek the greatest possible access to it through a new, comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement.’

More recently, she’s also said we need to

‘ensure that we get the right trade deal so that farmers can continue to export their produce to the European Union but also…trade around the rest of the world’.

It is this and not hard Brexit that has been the UK Government’s stated goal throughout. Although, as the Prime Minister stated, if we threw away our negotiating position at a stroke by rejecting the idea of walking away with no deal, Brussels would think Christmas had come early. As the Chancellor said last weekend, no deal would be a bad deal, although one purpose-built to punish would be worse.

As negotiations now move forward, it is in the interests of both sides to recognise that there can only be two winners or two losers. The UK is the EU’s largest export partner, guaranteeing millions of jobs. It is overwhelmingly in the EU’s interest to agree a friendly UK-EU free trade deal. The UK is Ireland’s second largest trading partner in terms of value, and largest in terms of volume. In meetings with Irish Government representatives on Monday, the external affairs committee heard that the common travel area issue should be resolved without any real problem, and that Brexit would not close the time advantage of using the UK land bridge to access continental markets. As the Foreign Secretary said last weekend:

‘We can and must deliver on the will of the people. We can reflect the mandate of the more than 80% of MPs whose manifestos pledged them to support Brexit.’

‘If we get it right’, he said, ‘(and’, he said,

‘there is much more good will on both sides than you might think), then we can end up with a deep and special partnership with the EU; a strong EU buttressed by and supporting a strong UK—and still trading and co-operating closely with each other, too.’

‘We are going to deliver’, he said,

‘not a soft Brexit or a hard Brexit—but an open Brexit, one that ensures that the UK is still turned outwards, and more engaged with the world than ever before.’

The First Minister was correct. You can only be a member of the single market if you are a full member. Although both Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell have insisted that Labour is formally committed to taking Britain out of the single market and the customs union, Labour’s shadow Brexit Secretary said last weekend that the option of retaining UK membership of the EU customs union should be left on the table. This is counterintuitive because it would prevent the UK from negotiating international trade deals outside single market membership, and, as we also heard in Ireland on Monday, you can leave the customs union and still have customs arrangements afterwards.

To restate, Welsh Conservatives want agreed UK-wide frameworks that respect the devolved settlement as funding schemes and initiatives are returned from the European Union. We therefore welcome confirmation, in notes accompanying today’s Queen’s Speech, that the repeal Bill, transferring existing EU legislation into UK law, will be a transitional arrangement to provide certainty immediately after exit and allow intensive discussion and consultation with devolved administrations on where lasting common frameworks are needed. I emphasise we believe those frameworks must be agreed. Thank you.