As I stated here in June 2016,

'Wales in Britain must be a sovereign partner of Europe not a province of the EU as part of an outward-looking global community.'

Today, five years exactly since the people of Wales—the people of Wales—voted to leave the EU, an outward-looking global Britain is able to strike trade deals with new markets as a liberal, free trading force for good in the world. Much has been achieved, and especially given the unprecedented circumstances created by the pandemic and constant sniping from those who, for once, didn't get their own way.

Since Brexit, our global UK has signed deals covering 67 countries and the EU, and is making good progress with other friends and allies, including New Zealand, Australia and the US. Last week's historic free trade deal with Australia will create new opportunities for UK and Welsh businesses and consumers, removing all tariffs on UK goods, making it cheaper to sell products like cars, whisky and ceramics into Australia, slashing red tape for thousands of small businesses, making it easier to travel and work, especially for young people.

Farmers will be protected by a cap on tariff-free imports for 15 years, and agricultural producers will also be supported to increase their exports overseas. In some cases, Australia has higher animal welfare standards than some EU countries, and the UK international trade Secretary has also guaranteed, for example, that hormone-injected beef will remain banned in the UK. However, as NFU Cymru Clwyd told me last Saturday, trade liberalisation is good, but they need fair play on hygiene and welfare standards. We agree. They added that they need farm support schemes from the Welsh Government that are serviceable, workable and affordable. Well, that's over to these Ministers.

Yesterday, the UK Government launched negotiations to join the comprehensive and progressive agreement, the trans-Pacific partnership, a £1 trillion free trading area, home to 500 million people, which will open up new opportunities for UK businesses in the world's fastest growing market. Rather than whingeing and wailing, sneering and scaremongering, it's vital that Labour Welsh Government Ministers and Plaid Cymru, fellow travellers in Cardiff Bay, now ensure that Wales is at the front of the queue to capitalise on the numerous opportunities created for Welsh businesses by these new trade deals, which will allow us to build back better after the pandemic.

As I said here last December,

'experts say the post-Brexit trade deal will help the economy bounce back in 2021, after a bleak year dominated by the coronavirus crisis.'

Two months ago, Irish sea ferry operator Stena Line said that freight traffic is on the up at its ports in Holyhead and Fishguard following a dip after Brexit. The CBI forecast last Friday stated that the UK economy will expand by 8.2 per cent this year and 6.1 per cent next year, outpacing all the UK's major competitors and taking the economy back to pre-pandemic levels of activity by the end of the year.

Partisan hype about the UK internal market Act is opportunistic nonsense. In reality, at the time of the UK withdrawal Bill, the UK Government agreed that UK-wide frameworks to replace the EU rulebook would be freely negotiated between the four UK Governments in areas such as food, animal welfare and the environment, setting standards below which none can fall, with the existing common arrangements maintained until these are all agreed.

And in a statement on the UK Government's latest report on common frameworks earlier this month, the Welsh Government states

'The report outlines continued positive work on Common Frameworks, and confirms that the UK Government has not used the ‘freezing powers’.'

The reactionaries opposite keep spinning that the UK shared prosperity fund will leave Wales worse off, choosing to ignore repeated statements by UK Government Ministers that the amount of money that is going to be spent in Wales when the shared prosperity fund comes in will be identical to or higher than the amount of money that was spent in Wales that came from the EU, underpinned by the 'not a penny less' guarantee. What they don't want people to know is that the UK Government is asking local authorities in Wales to join with stakeholders including the Welsh Government to come up with really innovative ideas, where the lessons learned will form the basis of a much larger package of money from the end of 2021 onwards.

Last week, they even claimed here that the money would be spent better if it was put directly into their command-and-control hands. Let us remember that Labour Welsh Governments have already spent £5.5 billion in EU funding on not closing the prosperity gap, either within Wales or between Wales and the rest of the UK. That is why the UK Government wants to work at the lowest level—at a local level, with local authorities—and with the Welsh Government to finally put that money to deliver the closed prosperity gap it was originally intended for and create the prosperity that Wales has been waiting so long to achieve.