7. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan on Wales? OAQ53892

Japan remains a key trade partner for Wales and it is important that Welsh companies can continue to trade with Japan in the future. The Welsh Government continues to assess and monitor the impact of the economic partnership on Wales.  

I thank the Minister for that reply, and I'm sure she'll agree with me that it is important that we conclude a successor agreement to the EU agreement as soon as possible when we leave. She said earlier in response to Darren Millar that it's easier to create a trade deal when you've got 450 million people than it is with 50 million. I'm not sure there's any historical evidence to justify that assertion, but what is incontestably true is that it's easier to conclude a deal if you're negotiating on behalf of one country than 28 countries, as the progress of the EU-Canada trade agreement certainly demonstrated.

Will she agree with me that trade with Japan is very important, particularly for the automotive industry, because there was a 25 per cent increase in the demand for British-made cars in Japan last year? As the British economy is doing pretty well internationally, there is every reason to expect that we will be able to increase our trade with Japan significantly. The latest GDP figures for the UK show 0.5 per cent growth, business investment up 0.5 per cent and manufacturing growth up 2.2 per cent, compared with 0.4 per cent in the EU, and the German Government has recently slashed its growth forecast for this year from 2.1 per cent to 0.5 per cent, so outside the EU, and trading with the 85 per cent of the global economy that is not in the EU, offers us the best chance for Britain to succeed in the future.

Well, we hark back to this continual bleat that we hear: 'Let's go and make these trade deals with people all round the world.' The fact is that 50 per cent of our exports go to the EU. You cannot—[Interruption.] In trade in goods, in Wales, it's about 50 per cent, which is different from the UK, which is about 40 per cent.

I think what is important is that we understand that you cannot simply sign these trade agreements overnight. Sometimes they take years and years and years to develop, as we know from the attempt by the United States to make a trade deal with the European Union. So we know that this is going to be extremely difficult, and we know that we are likely to get a better deal as a member of a group where you can buy and sell goods with 500 million people.

Now, I think what's important is that we don't lose faith and we don't lose hope. I think we have got a strong relationship with the Japanese, and we need to build on that and make sure that we develop those bilateral relationships to continue with the investment that we hope that they will continue to make in our country, but also that we take the opportunity to increase our exports to Japan, and that's certainly something we hope we'll be doing during the world cup.

Earlier in the question session, people were highlighting the Rugby World Cup in Japan and the long-established trade links that we have with Japan, Minister. What benchmarks have you set for success with the various missions that will be going out on the back of the world cup to Japan? Rather than just measuring it in cups of coffee and Welsh cakes drunk, it is important that we can measure true success when the world cup finishes, and that the profile of Wales and the penetration of the Japanese market is far greater than when the world cup began.

I think you're absolutely right. What we need to see is some really hard delivery figures. That's why I'm having a meeting immediately after this to discuss with our representative who is out in Japan and who's come back to Wales to have discussions on this, to really work out exactly what it is we're trying to land as a result of this opportunity, this one-off opportunity we have, to expose our nation on an international stage. I don't think we should limit ourselves to Japan. I think there's an opportunity for us to show ourselves more broadly in the far east. I think, if you look at benchmarks for success, I would certainly hope to see at the end that we would increase the amount of food and drink, for example, that we're able to export. And of course we're looking, in particular, to see if we can open the lamb market there and that we can really bounce into that market on the back of that.

Thank you very much, Minister.