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00:00Good afternoon.
00:01Good afternoon.
00:02David Thompson from the Newsletter.
00:03Hi David.
00:04You thank the DEP leadership for your strong installment and commitment to work in good
00:05faith to implement the Safeguarding Union Bill.
00:06Will you implement everything in the Safeguarding Union Command Paper that's outstanding?
00:07And with new rules coming in in parcels at the end of March, can you guarantee that
00:08that will happen at the end of March or is it likely to be delayed?
00:28We're working very hard to get on with implementing commitments in Safeguarding Union.
00:33Many of them, as you will know, have already been implemented.
00:37Others are a work in progress and some of them depend on the continuing discussions
00:43we have with the EU, which is why negotiating an SPS and a veterinary agreement will be
00:49so important to resolving some of the issues that have arisen with the movement of plant
00:56and animal products.
00:58Look on the parcels.
01:01We weren't ready in time for the last date.
01:05The EU said, well, if you're not going to be ready on the parcels, then the easement
01:08on the movement of goods and paperwork, well, that's not going to come in at the same time.
01:12So we have a real incentive to make sure that we are ready on the parcels to get the benefit
01:17of the other part of the arrangement that will be put in place.
01:22And officials and the businesses are working really hard to put that in place.
01:28In the end, we have to have systems that work for people, that are practical, but which
01:34also address the central question that arose from the EU referendum, which some people
01:40did not want to think about or contemplate.
01:43How do you run things?
01:45Two countries, different systems, open border.
01:50And others have said, oh, well, you're going to have mutual enforcement.
01:55I'm afraid that's what was known at the time as, in my view, magical thinking.
02:01It isn't going to work on the basis of mutual enforcement.
02:03You have to have an arrangement that gives both countries confidence that goods coming
02:08into their jurisdiction are going to meet the rules that that country has set for itself,
02:11or in the case of the European Union, the EU has set.
02:15And the winder-framer really was a big step forward.
02:18When I stood in the House of Commons as a backbench MP, I praised the then government
02:22for the negotiation of the winder-framer.
02:24I voted for it enthusiastically, because I really did believe it was an important step
02:29forward.
02:30And when we see progress, we should acknowledge it, take advantage of it, and make it work.