Carwyn Jones to meet Hillary Clinton in US
FIRST Minister Carwyn Jones will meet Hillary Clinton in the United States this week, as part of a drive for deeper business links between North America and Wales.
The former First Lady has spoken with pride of her family’s roots in Wales, and last year Swansea University named its law school after her when she visited the city to receive an honorary degree.
Mr Jones will also speak at the United Nations about work to advance gender equality and women’s rights. He will host a St David’s Day reception on Capitol Hill, as well as an event in New York attended by Pontypool-born actor Luke Evans, who is well-known for his roles in the Hobbit and Beauty and the Beast.
The Welsh Labour leader will seek to ensure investors are not put off putting cash into Wales as Brexit nears and will champion a free trade deal with US.
According to the Welsh Government, the country is Wales’ largest inward investor, “with 270 US-owned companies based in Wales employing almost 50,000 people”.
It reports that last year Wales “secured investment from 24 American-owned companies that will create and safeguard nearly 1,500 Welsh jobs”. Wales had exports of £2.1bn to US in 2016.
There is no suggestion that President Trump plans to include Wales on the itinerary for his upcoming UK visit.
When asked if there was any indication the President was interested in visiting the nation, Mr Jones said: “No, not that we know of.”
As well as meeting business leaders and politicians in New York, Washington and Philadelphia, the First Minister will also head north into Canada to raise Wales’ profile in Montreal. Mr Jones looks forward to hearing former Secretary of State Ms Clinton’s views on what more can be done to promote Wales in the US. A priority is ensuring that it becomes an open market for Welsh lamb exports. Mr Jones said: “America is Wales’ most important business partner and I want to build on the strong trade links that exist between our two countries as we leave the EU.
“While in the US I want to gain a better understanding of the USA’s position on future trading arrangements with the UK and will press the case for developing a free trade agreement between our countries.
“Exciting opportunities for trade with North America lie ahead and, in my discussions with American businesses and politicians, I will reaffirm our commitment to boosting trade between Wales and the USA.
“As Wales and the UK prepare to leave the EU, I want to reassure investors and visitors from the United States that Wales remains an outward looking and welcoming country.”
Looking ahead to his visit to the UN, he said: “I’m going there to talk about our commitment to equalities and women’s rights... We have to remember we’ve come a long way but the work still needs to be done in order to ensure that equality continues in the future.”
Mr Jones defended the role of the Welsh Government’s overseas offices – a new one will be opened in Montreal – and denied this duplicated the work of the UK Government.
He said: “Are we trying to replicate what the UK does? No, we couldn’t because the UK’s network is much bigger than ours.
“We work with the UK Government and many of our people in offices around the world are actually based in embassies.
“But we do have a presence in countries and cities which are particularly important to us, where there’s a strong Welsh presence, and having that extra Welsh dimension enables us to be able to look for new investment opportunities in the future.”
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies said it was “lamentable” that trade with the US had declined.
He said: “If this trade mission is to succeed where so many others have not, then I would strongly suggest to the First Minister that he ceases his bellyaching and doom-laden prophesising over Brexit.
“It is only through positive and collaborative working with the UK Government that the First Minister can maximise trade opportunities and business links with our North American partners.”