In response to last week’s Airbus Statement regarding Brexit, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Europe, Mark Isherwood AM, has said this week that it is vital that employees know that negotiations are ongoing.
Following yesterday’s Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport on ‘The Recent Airbus Group Announcement’, Mr Isherwood emphasised that negotiations on the Withdrawal Agreement are ongoing and that the Prime Minister has made it clear that instead of a hard Brexit, she seeks a 'new, comprehensive, bold and ambitious free trade agreement'.
Speaking in the Chamber, Mr Isherwood, who has visited Airbus Broughton many times, and who has previously both visited Airbus headquarters in Toulouse and discussed this and other matters with Katherine Bennett, Senior Vice-President, Airbus in the UK, said:
“The Prime Minister has said that the agreement we reach with the EU must protect people's jobs and security. However, given the mixed messages and the concern that employees got the message that negotiations are over, no deal is being done and they could be ‘Up the Swanny’ accordingly, what action will you take to help balance their understanding - yes, understand the risks, but also understand the broader scenario?”
“For example, we know that last December the European Council agreed that sufficient progress had been made in phase 1 of the Brexit negotiations with the EU to allow talks to move on to phase 2. In March, EU and UK negotiators reached a political deal on the terms of a Brexit transition period in a new draft withdrawal agreement, following which the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce said that this was a milestone that many businesses across the UK had been waiting for, and that the agreement of a status quo transition period is great news for trading firms on both sides of the Channel, as it means that they face little or no change in day-to-day business in the short term.
He added: “Will you join me in emphasising to those employees in Broughton that the UK Government last month agreed that it would be telling the EU it wished to extend Britain's membership of the Customs Union beyond the initial transition period, and to tell them that on 19 June, last week, a joint statement from the negotiators of the European Union and the UK Government on progress of negotiations under Article 50 (Treaty on European Union) said, 'The statement details the articles of the draft Agreement where agreement has now been reached at negotiators' level, as well as those areas where further progress has been made'? And there's a long list of areas already agreed.
“Is it not, therefore, vital that we balance this by ensuring the workforce know that these negotiations are ongoing, know that transition has been agreed, know the UK Government acknowledges, now unanimously, the need to extend transition into extension of the customs union, for the reasons that I describe, and know that only yesterday, Greg Clark, the UK Business and industry Secretary, told a hearing in the UK Parliament that an agreement which ensures that avoidable threats of frictions and tariffs do not take place ‘is absolutely within our grasp’, and it is what all parliamentary parties should back during the months ahead?”
Speaking outside the Chamber, Mr Isherwood added:
“As Greg Clark said this week ‘the UK Government is seeking a future agreement with the EU in which manufactured products can be approved for use across Europe and skilled personnel can work across the multiple-sites of an integrated operation such as Airbus. However, UK-EU negotiations are at a critical stage and it would be very odd, and entirely self-defeating, if either was to reveal their cards at the outset. It is therefore essential that the concerns raised by Airbus are also expressed to the EU negotiators, where an agreement is needed that best advantages everyone.”