8. What discussions has the Minister had with EU representatives regarding the Welsh Government's international strategy? OAQ55048

I launched the international strategy in Brussels and Paris, and further details are contained in my written statement. 

I thank the Minister for that answer. I've read the written statement, and you do highlight that you met with Commissioner Hogan's cabinet—I'm assuming his team, rather than perhaps himself, perhaps you can clarify that.

But as we were told on many occasions by Brexiteers, we may be leaving the EU, but we're not leaving Europe. Now, the biggest organised trading organisation within Europe is the EU, and in the international strategy, you've highlighted cyber security and creative industries as two of the areas. Clearly, they're going to be affected by EU laws, particularly perhaps on the copyright question, because that's been going through, and there are very deep concerns about the copyright. What discussions will you have with EU representatives to ensure that, as they look at the laws, we can work within that to ensure that our businesses can actually export to the EU, and to ensure that we don't breach the laws?

Because this transition period is a difficult one. We don't know how well we're going to manage and transpose EU law into UK and Welsh law, and post-31 December, that might change even more. So, we need to have those discussions with the EU to ensure that the businesses and industries you identified in the international strategy, plus the ones that are not there, are able to benefit from and use EU law and it doesn't impact upon our industries.

Thank you. When we were trying to work out which sectors we should be promoting, we actually looked for ones that would be relatively Brexit proof, and the sectors that we chose were ones where we thought there would be a lesser impact as a result of us leaving the EU. So, we've deliberately thought through that as an approach.

But I think what we have got to watch out for is what that will look like in future. When we start to diverge, if we do diverge, then what will that mean in terms of access to the market and how that could impact on the sectors? We're in a different place now, and we've got to look at where the opportunities are for us as well. It may be that there is space for us in some of these technological areas in terms of creating the regulatory environment for autonomous vehicles or for cyber security; there may be some space there for us to maybe go faster and quicker than some of the continent, and that could give us an opportunity to race ahead. That, to a large extent, will be up to the UK Government, whether they grasp that opportunity.

Thank you very much, Minister.