Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:23 pm on 28 February 2018.
I thank the Member for that, but when I met with individuals who represent businesses in Europe, they were not looking for the softer solutions, because they didn't know which direction they were going in. Therefore I do believe that technology will eventually get there—not tomorrow, not next year, but probably in about five years' time, and that's a long while to wait to try and do some trade with European Union nations.
Anyway, let's go back to the issue. If we want to look, perhaps, at how border checks work, go to Norway—we've mentioned Norway many times in this Chamber—and look at Norway's customs service. It has been expanded in recent decades to address the issues, but they still have difficulties in actually managing the borders. For example—and I do apologise to Norwegians if I get this pronunciation wrong—at Svinesund, which handles 70 per cent of the cross-border flows of commercial traffic between Norway and Sweden, all commercial traffic—all commercial traffic—is stopped. Every bit of it. Checks are made on both goods and drivers. Now, that's the relationship in Norway. These delay lorries. They delay the operation and therefore the just-in-time agenda will be delayed as a consequence. It might not be very much; it might be, as some say, an average of four minutes. Some lorries will be delayed longer. You put four minutes on per lorry in Holyhead and see the queues you'll get. You put two minutes on in Dover, and the recommendation from Dover port is you'll have a 10-mile queue. That's the reality of what customs union failure will do.