• Prime Minister
travels to Scotland to meet employers and workers to discuss the
agreement reached in Brussels
• She will say the
deal protects jobs and provides new opportunities for
exporters
• The PM will
also welcome the support she has received from Scottish employers
and trade organisations
Prime Minister will today set out how the
Brexit deal agreed with the EU protects jobs and trade while
providing new opportunities for Scotland’s fishing industry and
exporters.
During a visit near Glasgow, she will speak to factory
workers and outline how the deal provides certainty for employers
and their staff.
The deal reached in Brussels on Sunday creates a free trade area
for goods with no tariffs, fees or charges - the first such
agreement of its kind between an advanced economy and the EU.
Over the past week, Diageo, National Farming Union Scotland, the
Scotch Whisky Association and BAE Systems have expressed their
support for the deal and publicly warned about the potential
consequences of ‘no deal’ for Scotland.
She will also say that, as well as giving clarity to business,
the deal delivers for Scottish fishermen by taking back control
of our waters.
This will enhance the fortunes of the fishing industry and allow
it to take advantage of the opportunities championed by groups
such as the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation.
For the first time in four decades, the UK will also be free to
strike its own trade deals with non-EU countries – providing
further opportunity for iconic exports such as Scottish smoked
salmon and Scotch whisky.
The Prime Minister will say:
‘It is a deal that is good for Scottish employers and which
will protect jobs. It includes a new
free trade area with no tariffs, fees, quantitative restrictions
or rules of origin checks—an unprecedented economic relationship
that no other major economy has.
‘At the same time, we will be free to strike our own trade
deals around the world – providing even greater opportunity to
Scottish exporters. I welcome the strong support which employers
have given to the deal and the certainty which it provides.
‘Crucially, the deal also ensures that we will leave EU
programmes that do not work in our interests. So we will be out
of the common agricultural policy, which has failed our farmers,
and out of the common fisheries policy, which has so tragically
failed Scotland’s coastal communities.
‘At long last, we will be “an independent coastal state”
again – taking back full sovereign control over our waters, and
free to decide for ourselves who we allow to fish in our
waters.
‘The EU maintained throughout the negotiation process that it
wanted to link overall access to markets to access to fisheries.
It failed in the withdrawal agreement and it failed again in the
political declaration.
‘I have been robust in defending the interests of Scottish
fisherman so far- and I will always be so.’
