Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his European transition responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 2:54 pm on 11 November 2020.
The election of Joe Biden makes it less likely the UK Government can count on the backing of Donald Trump for a go-it-alone strategy, but we saw in the past how difficult it was to negotiate with the United States with the failed transatlantic trade and investment partnership deal, which took over three years and was mainly around our concern that the United States wanted to be able to take over our national health service. Today, obviously we're more concerned with the undermining of our food and animal welfare standards. But I think one of the major barriers now to any deal, it seems, with the EU-27 looks as if it's the internal market Bill, because of the state-aid elements within the internal market Bill, which should be a huge cause for concern for any of the devolved Governments and anybody who is concerned about the future state of the union. I'm sure Joe Biden will spell this out for him, particularly in relation to the Good Friday agreement. But what, if anything, can we do to persuade the UK Government to abandon this very damaging legislation, which almost guarantees 'no deal'?