Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:08 pm on 21 November 2017.
Well, we'll have to trade with any country we can around the world, within reason. But the reality is that most of our export market is the European single market. That can't be replaced overnight. We can't start, for example, suddenly to export dairy produce to the US because of the issues that exist there, nor should we try and ignore our biggest market, which is on our doorstep. That doesn't mean, of course, that we are not proactive in developing markets elsewhere. The middle east is one example. The very fact that, working with the airport, we've established a link to Doha from next year; the fact that we have been working to gain trade, for example, in middle eastern countries. We have, for example, a situation where Welsh lamb is the market leader in the United Arab Emirates, something that I and, indeed, the Presiding Officer worked for in order for that to happen. So, it's not the case that we only focus on Europe, but Europe is our most important market by far, and it's not realistic to think that it can be replaced with anything else, particularly in the short term.