Ms Sinéad McPhillips:

For any free trade agreement, as I said to other Deputies, the Commission has competence for trade negotiations but in the course of those negotiations, it will consult with member states to see what the sensitivities are. Obviously, in examining the detail of any Commission proposals, we would look at whether we are sensitive to imports from those countries, whether they could disrupt the EU market and whether there are significant potential export markets there. There is always a balance to be struck in relation to trade. It is very rarely either fully good or fully bad so we need to have the opportunity to assess and to input when the Commission is negotiating on behalf of the EU.