The Trading of Goods

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 2:04 pm on 20 June 2018.

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Photo of Jenny Rathbone Jenny Rathbone Labour 2:04, 20 June 2018

Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I'd like to focus on the possible implications for the food we import if we suddenly find ourselves having to impose tariffs and chaos at our borders. We currently import £9 billion of fruit and vegetables from the European Union, compared with the £1 billion-worth of fruit and vegetables that we grow in this country, so this is a very significant issue in terms of the type of food that we need to eat to keep healthy. I know that some elements in the Conservative Party are enthusiastic advocates of importing cheap food from the United States, like chlorinated chicken and hormone-induced beef, but, for the majority, we want to know the conditions under which our food is grown and, in particular, I wondered what consideration has been given to the issue of food security, because, if we cannot get hold of the products that we currently rely on, clearly, there is going to be a massive spike in the cost of those products and simply not enough available to feed the population. We still don't know what the future of pillar 1 payments might be. Gove talks a good game on pillar 2 and the environmental benefits of public goods, but what is going to be the implication for food production, for the feeding of our very own population, if we do not have free movement of these essential goods from Europe?