Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:46 pm on 13 June 2018.
Thank you for that response. We don't know yet what sort of agreement might be finalised with the EU. One thing we do know is that the UK as a whole is only about 75 per cent self-sufficient in food products. There is a substantial imbalance of trade between Britain and the EU in food and drink products, so there is enormous scope, if the EU should be so foolish as to apply substantial tariffs to imports from the UK, for us to retaliate and for the food currently emanating from the EU to be replaced by food that is grown in Wales and other parts of the United Kingdom. In dairy, for example, our exports to the EU are about £1 billion a year, but we import £2 billion from them. In the case of beef, we import about 400,000 tonnes a year, but we export only 180,000 tonnes. Pork, we import about 1 million tonnes a year, but we export a fifth of that—200,000 tonnes. So, there's tremendous scope here for import substitution. We don't know what sort of regime we're going to face, but it would certainly be sensible for us to plan on the basis of there being no real deal and therefore to gear up Welsh farmers and the industry generally to replace the exports from the EU to Britain, which we compete with. So, what support can the Welsh Government give to farmers and others in the agricultural sector to take up the gap in trade that we currently suffer?