Scarborough and Whitby MP supports post-Brexit deal
The MP for Scarborough and Whitby has given his thoughts about the post-Brexit trade deal.
The MP for Scarborough and Whitby has given his thoughts about the post-Brexit trade deal.
It is ahead of a vote in Parliament tomorrow, as earlier this week EU ambassadors unanimously approved it.
Robert Goodwill says 62% of his constituency of Scarborough and Whitby voted leave in the referendum back in 2016.
He said:
"I'm obviously going to support the deal. I think it's a great deal and of course, the alternative would be to leave without a deal and that would have created a tremendous problems for trade and a number of other areas of co-operation like security, so it's great news we've got this deal.
"We've got maybe not the best deal we could have hoped for in terms of fishing but certainly better than the one that the European Union offered which would allow us to have a bigger share of our fish. More importantly, for the fishermen in Scarborough and Whitby and also in places like Bridlington, we have access to the European market.
"Fish like crab and lobster aren't quoted as species and therefore not affected by the negotiations but access to the main market for these products, which is in the main, France and Spain and other European destinations, would have been severely limited had we not had this great trade deal.
"Shellfish are put onto lorries in big tanks alive, and they have to travel as quickly as possible to markets in France and Spain and any delay at the border would have caused problems with fish mortality and any tariffs would have meant that the price that our fishermen got would have been reduced or in some cases, could even have rendered catching them uneconomic.
"There's a lot in those 1,200 pages which is great news and without a deal, we'd have been left in limbo in many of those areas, This big, comprehensive deal delivers not only the trade that we want but also makes it absolutely clear that we are an independent, sovereign state.
"We have an agreement on what's called 'Rules of Origin' which means if you're making a bus in Scarborough and you're using components from all around the world, there is a limit on what proportion of imported goods you can use to make that vehicle without incurring an import tariff.
"I think if we had decided to walk away from the talks but resume in the New Year, that would have been even more uncertain and even worse for business in some ways, than no deal at all. We were prepared for no deal but this deal delivers what we promised the British people and what we told them just over a year ago in the General Election."