6. Welsh Conservatives Debate: Free ports

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:21 pm on 8 February 2023.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 5:21, 8 February 2023

Minister, thank you for giving way, because there's a danger that this debate can get polarised into you're either pro free ports entirely or against them entirely. But, actually, the pragmatic approach of working with the deck of cards that we are dealt and dealing with that in a pragmatic way, Government to Government and so on, is right, it's the right way to go, but we really have to guard against an idea that everybody becomes a beneficiary here. Because the worst thing for me in that big Bridgend manufacturing belt that you've talked about is that we actually see some of that sucked away into a free-port area and actually losing jobs from walk-to-work areas, part of the foundational economy, jobs in the Valleys and so on. So, if this is going to work, the Welsh Government need to be right in there, actually, and saying to the UK Government, 'The way this will work, to keep jobs in areas, will be this way and not just a free-for-all.'