Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his European transition responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 11 November 2020.
I thank Mike Hedges for that question. I do share his concern. The end of transition action plan that we published this morning identifies the risks that he describes in his questions to the red meat sector should we end the transition period without the kind of trade deal that he talks about. That is why it's so important to ensure that we don't find ourselves in that position, and if we should find ourselves in that position, the plan describes the sort of support that farmers in Wales are going to need, which would be very significant support. Now, some of the work that we did in terms of the contingency planning at the end of last year, when we faced the risk of leaving without any kind of agreement, will have stood us, to some extent, in good stead this year, but it is certainly the case that if we leave without a deal, the kind of scale of intervention that will be required would need significant support on a cross-UK basis.