, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, on the basis you can't please all the people all the time. This is a classic example of the lobbying that I have. The joint fisheries statement does commit us to exploring where there are opportunities for the use of technology, and obviously that…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I'm expecting them all to be drafted this year, in 2022. We are really pushing for them to be considered as early as possible. I know stakeholders have got a particular interest in this—they've certainly told me that—and I think they're also interested in how…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Thank you, Luke. I fully expect the fisheries management operational agreement, or agreements, to address those concerns. That intention was included in the memorandum of understanding, and I will be looking to the UK Government to deliver on that commitment…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, all I can go on is the impacts that I've seen from the analysis that officials have seen, from the UK Government, that tell us the sector will be negatively impacted. So, as I just said in my answer to Hefin, I think there could be some positives for…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes. But, as I say, that requirement for meat, fish and seafood is there. What requirement isn't there is if it then goes into a product. So, it's something that we will keep discussing, obviously, with the UK Government.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, absolutely.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, absolutely. All meat and fish and seafood have to be clearly labelled with the country they come from. I suppose, for me, the concern is a lot of Australian meat could end up in ready meals, I guess. So, it would be part of that dish and you wouldn't…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I don't see any, really. I mean, I guess, for Wales, we do have very high standards. Our Welsh lamb and beef are world-known. I think it's really important, as a Government, and I take this role very seriously, that we do all we can to promote our fantastic…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, it could do, yes, absolutely. I mean, I hear all the time, 'Well, they didn't use their full quota before; why would they after?' I went out to New Zealand, from an agricultural perspective, back in, gosh, 2017—no, 2018—and I met with their chief…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
No. I mean, all we can do is continue to press the UK to make sure that, when they are doing these FTAs, they take that into consideration. I wouldn't think that they would want to see a drop in standards, would they? But it is really important that we do…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, you know, we were kept out at a trade level. We were certainly kept out of those discussions. Obviously, that's another Minister that has been working with the UK Government on that. For me, the disappointment is that we haven't had that level of data…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, well, the UK Government's own impact assessment shows that agriculture and semi-processed food sectors right across the UK as a whole will be negatively impacted by the agreement. So, I'll just put that there because that is obviously really, really…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Sorry, Hefin. Did you say UK-Australia?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
I'm not aware at all. I'll ask Christianne if she is.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, I think we need to look at that. Obviously, this is the first year now, so we need to look at that going forward, but, certainly, when I was health Minister, we had particular schemes to encourage doctors to stay here if they trained. Part of having the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
That's right—it's part of the course. So, it's the Royal Veterinary College in London, and they do two years in Aberystwyth. But, it's really important that we've established that. It would be great to have a full course, you're quite right, but, at the…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
You're quite right, our veterinary capacity has been severely stretched. We had issues around leaving the European Union. So, just in Christianne's team, I think over 50 per cent of the vets in Christianne's team are EU nationals. I think 100 per cent of vets…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Morning.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, absolutely, and certainly in my discussions with both the NFU and the FUW they raised that with me on Monday. I know they've been having discussions with their counterparts across the UK. Certainly, it'll be on the agenda on Monday for the IMG, because…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Well, I mentioned in my earlier answer that we're looking at a variety of analyses, data and evidence, so I would hope that that could be drawn out as we go forward. I will, as I say, publish the evidence and analysis when I publish the outline of the SFS.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Sorry, I do think it will support it. Obviously, we've always been very clear that the SFS will support sustainable food production, for instance. So, again, talking to the farming unions, I think they see lots of opportunities there to increase—…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, and I will be making a further statement in the next couple of weeks, I hope, around the plans for supporting the rural economy over the next three years. So, the successor RDP plan, for want of a better term, and we'll continue to support farmers to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
No problem.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Thanks very much. I think I should say right at the start there is no immediate risk to food supplies and food security within Wales or even the United Kingdom at the moment because of the conflict in Ukraine. However, I meet regularly with the Department for…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Ministerial Scrutiny - Minister for Rural Affairs and North Wales, and Trefnydd
Yes, certainly. So, what we're doing here is having a three-pronged approach to ensure that the proposals that are set out in the scheme are underpinned by very robust evidence. We want an analysis from a range of sources too. We've got the environment and…
