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No-deal Brexit would be a catastrophe, Mark Drakeford says Brexit trade talks needed by December, says Drakeford
(about 4 hours later)
Failure to reach a Brexit deal with the European Union would be "catastrophic" for the UK, according to Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford. UK and EU negotiators must ensure Brexit discussions move on to discuss trade by December, Welsh Finance Secretary Mark Drakeford has said.
He said an inability to reach an agreement "would have dire economic, security and social consequences". He said accelerating the talks was "so important" for Welsh businesses who are currently making investment decisions.
Prime Minister Theresa May has said her ministers are preparing for "every eventuality", including no deal. Mr Drakeford was speaking after meeting European Parliament Chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt in Brussels.
Mr Drakeford is due to meet European Parliament Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt in Brussels on Tuesday. Mr Drakeford said there was an "extra obligation" on the UK to move the talks along as it is the one leaving the EU.
Mr Drakeford said it was "a deeply dangerous fallacy" that no deal "is a viable outcome". "We say to the UK government that it would be catastrophic to leave the European Union without a deal and you need to be focussed, absolutely relentlessly and forensically focussed, on getting a deal that works for Wales and works for the United Kingdom," he said.
"It is more important than ever for transition discussions between the UK and the EU 27 to commence as soon as possible. Business confidence is already suffering due to the uncertainty," he added. In the initial phase of the Brexit negotiations citizens rights, financial commitments and the Irish border are being discussed.
Mr Drakeford's meeting with Mr Verhofstadt follows his meeting with UK and Scottish government ministers on Monday. Mr Drakeford said Welsh ministers were concerned that on citizens rights, "given that this was supposed to be one of the more straight forward issues that many months into the negotiations...it hasn't been possible to reach a final agreement on that".
After the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee in Westminster, Mrs May's deputy, Damian Green, said a "significant step forward" in Brexit talks between the UK and Welsh governments had been claimed. Until sufficient progress has been made on the first phase of the discussions, the EU negotiators have said they will not move on to discuss the future trading relationship with the UK.
But Mr Drakeford said the Welsh Government had not dropped its threat to oppose the EU Withdrawal Bill. After a dinner in Brussels on Monday night, Theresa May and EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker issued a statement saying the negotiations ".
Both governments are also in disagreement about the possibility of the UK not reaching a deal with the EU. Because Welsh businesses "are having to make investment decisions now about their businesses", Mr Drakeford said "accelerating the negotiations" and "focussing on a good deal, and the good deal that is necessary for Wales is so important for those businesses".
He added that since it is the UK that is leaving the EU and not the other way around, there was an "extra obligation on the UK government" to make concessions.
'Brexit mess'
Also meeting Guy Verhofstadt in Brussels on Tuesday morning was the Scottish Brexit Secretary Mike Russell.
He echoed the Welsh Government's view that "a no deal would be disastrous, it must not happen."
The Welsh and Scottish governments have presented an united front in their opposition to the law proposed by the UK Government to transfer EU law on to the British statute book.
Called a "power grab" by First Minister Carwyn Jones, Mr Russell said the EU Withdrawal Bill was "the biggest threat we've ever faced in the 20 years of devolution".
Mr Russell praised the relationship between ministers in Cardiff and Edinburgh as "one of the few positive signs one might say out of the Brexit mess."