Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:40 pm on 9 May 2018.
Diolch, Llywydd. Following the Cabinet Secretary's forward-looking statement yesterday about life after Brexit and an agricultural policy tailor-made for Wales, I'd like to ask her whether she will continue to be open minded on the question of introducing a ban on the live export of animals. I know she's said this in the past, but, if there were to be such a ban, it would not extend to Northern Ireland, because we can't have agricultural policy making trade more difficult with other parts of the United Kingdom.
In this context, I don't know whether she's seen the latest edition of Y Tir, the publication of the Farmers Union of Wales, which is headlined 'Live exports ban would be short-sighted in the context of other uncertainties around Brexit'. Only 140 tonnes by weight of animals were exported live from Wales, as I understand, last year. So, it's a small problem and therefore not likely to cause any great difficulty for farmers. But the fact that the trade is small is not in itself an argument against introducing such a ban if it proves to be justifiable in the context of all the other considerations that would have to be borne in mind, and therefore, it wouldn't, on that ground, be ruled out by the Welsh Government.