5. Statement by the Minister for International Relations and Welsh Language: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:41 pm on 6 May 2020.

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Photo of Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan Labour 4:41, 6 May 2020

Thank you. Well, it's been quite interesting, the British Council have done quite a lot of surveys in relation to the interest of Chinese students—whether they still want to come to study in the United Kingdom. And it's quite interesting, as you say, that the majority of them still seem to be very interested. There are about 39 per cent of them from China who seem to be undecided, and so that suggests that we do need to put some measures in place to make sure that they do have that confidence that you talk about. And that's why these protocols are going to be really, really important, I think, going forward, to give them that confidence. Indian and Pakistan students, in the same survey by the British Council, they suggest that 50 per cent of them are not likely to cancel their plans and they seem to be more interested in making sure that they follow through on that. There have been discussions with Global Wales and the UK Government about how we build the confidence of those people.

Of course, since about 29 January, there has been a need to self-isolate, if you're showing symptoms, coming into this country from elsewhere. But I think there probably is a question that we still need to ask, and it is something that I asked Frank Atherton this morning, which is: should we be, perhaps, going a little bit further and suggesting that everybody who comes in should self-isolate for a couple of weeks? It's quite interesting to note that we seem to be slightly different from a lot of other countries in the world on that one. But that is something that we discuss at our weekly meetings with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I have had, as I say, a meeting with the education Minister where we discussed some of those issues.

On free trade, I did have a discussion yesterday with Greg Hands, who's the Minister responsible for the negotiation with the United States on creating that new free trade agreement. I did emphasise the importance of making sure that those standards that we hold dear are adhered to, but that the language in the negotiation mandate is pretty vague and that, actually, we think it should be tightened up. I think it is important that they understand, and it is something that I emphasise very clearly, that we do want to make sure that we stick to these high environmental standards, animal welfare standards, labour standards, and consumer standards. Those are all things that we will be looking out for in those agreements. He understood that and we emphasised the importance of a level playing field when it comes to imports into this country, and that the standards that we expect, in terms of animal welfare, for example, need to be adhered to, otherwise there could be a danger that they could undercut what we are able to produce in this country.