EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK Debate
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Gideon Amos
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EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK
Gideon Amos Excerpts(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Catherine West
My hon. Friend knows of what she speaks in the area of trade in the EU and manufacturing in the UK.
The new UK-EU partnership includes an agreement to work towards making agrifood trade easier, as my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) mentioned. Ultimately, the sanitary and phytosanitary deal will add £9 billion to the UK economy in the long term, but we need to get on with it. We are 18 months into this Parliament. We need to put our foot on the accelerator to fight against food poverty, bring down food prices and help manufacturers.
Let me emphasise that there is so much more we can do to support our creative sector. We need specific commitments on touring to allow artists to travel visa-free and to carry their instruments, equipment and props without prohibitive admin and bureaucracy. A special cultural exemption from the UK-EU trade and co-operation agreement would go a long way towards that and I know that is at the heart of the discussions for the Cabinet Office.
Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)
The hon. Lady mentions the trade and co-operation agreement, which was of course meant to remove tariffs. Does she share my concern about companies, such as those in Taunton and Wellington, that do not have to pay tariffs but who have to pay £300 for every cross-border transaction, to have all the paperwork done? That is effectively a tariff, and not the free trade we were promised. Does that not show the lunacy of the way the Brexit decision was carried out?
Catherine West
The hon. Member is completely right that there is far too much unnecessary bureaucracy that did not exist before. If we can develop the relationship with European partners, those creases can be ironed out and we can have much more friction-free trade.
To realise our full potential in tackling global challenges such as climate change, the UK needs to play a fuller part in the latest iteration of the EU’s research and innovation framework programme, FP10, as we did with Horizon Europe 2024. I would welcome an update from the Minister on that point.
Nothing says more about who we are and our place in the world than our relationship with our closest neighbours. The new UK-EU strategic partnership is a great start, but there is lots more to do. Let us not waste this wonderful opportunity.