Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 3:02 pm on 22 May 2019.
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.