This is a first for a trade agreement. It's unprecedented for a Government to enter into a trade treaty agreement that adds layers and layers of bureaucracy to selling or buying goods that we may wish to exchange with our European neighbours. Most trade deals remove barriers to trading, not increase them.

This self-imposed cross we now have to bear comes on the back of an obsession about sovereignty, as if, in the middle of a global pandemic and a climate emergency, we are somehow independent actors in control of our destiny. By a pipsqueak, we have managed to avoid the even more damaging prospect of a 'no deal', and no doubt the images of thousands of lorry drivers stacked up in Kent and elsewhere helped to concentrate minds on what a 'no deal' would involve. But it would have added the payment of taxes or tariffs to any of the goods we imported, in particular food. The impacts on the communities that, certainly, I represent would have been absolutely devastating.

The lesser evil of this thin deal will still increase prices of anything we import or export. The bureaucracy involved in form filling and compliance checks inevitably will have a cost, which in most cases will be passed on to the consumer. It didn't need to be this way; the 2016 referendum said nothing about leaving the single market. The question was should the United Kingdom remain a member of the EU or not. No mention of leaving the single market and no discussion beyond a catalogue of porky pies on what that would mean. It would certainly have been perfectly possible to leave the EU and remain part of the single market. This was a political choice by the far-right element who now dominate the Tory party, aided and abetted by their fellow-travelling UKIP friends, some of whom are present in this Parliament.

Time will tell whether the sunny tableau painted by David Rowlands is the future that now beckons for Wales. Yes, there will be opportunities for entrepreneurial businesses to spot gaps in supply chains, to provide substitutes for imported goods or parts of goods, and that opportunity may prove to be a real one for many small enterprises, and good luck to them. But these non-tariff barriers make the just-in-time model of the supermarkets to ship nearly all fresh produce from other parts of Europe increasingly unattractive and unreliable, so there may well be new opportunities for Welsh horticulture, which of course I welcome. But the danger of these non-tariff barriers is that multinational companies will lose patience with the bureaucracy and the delays involved in having part of their business in Wales or Britain with key suppliers and sales markets in mainland Europe, and that they will use the transition period to transfer their operations to elsewhere in Europe. That would have devastating consequences for many parts of Wales, particularly Deeside.

On fishing, yes, it prevents the annihilation of the Welsh fishing industry, which would have been the result of no deal, but it's delusional of Paul Davies to foretell a golden future for the Welsh fishing industry. I am sure the five multimillionaire organisations that dominate the British fishing industry will be delighted to get increasing amounts of the UK catch, inaccessible to Welsh fishing businesses whose small inshore boats are not capable of reaching the deep waters. Unless we take very swift regulatory action, the wealth will simply be gobbled up by these multimillionaires who already dominate the British fishing industry, and that foretells what might happen to many other parts of our industries as well.

Turning to the views of my own constituents, the decision to prevent our young people from continuing to have the opportunity to study in Europe—so near, yet so culturally different—has been widely condemned. It really is demonstrating the little Englander approach of the Johnson Government in its most unattractive light. We have to remember that the reason why the European project was founded at all was in order to prevent future wars between our nations, and this wonderful Erasmus+ programme—shaped by a proud Welshman, Hywel Ceri Jones—was really helping young people to respect and celebrate difference and learning from each other's strengths. Now instead, the UK Government wants to replace it—