Acting Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism steps up preparations for Brexit

The minister is accompanied by the State Secretary for Tourism, Isabel Oliver, the State Secretary for Trade, Xiana Méndez, and the Secretary-General for Industry and SMEs, Raül Blanco.

The ministerial team will hold a work meeting with senior officials from the Economic and Trade Office and the Spanish Tourism Office, with headquarters in the British capital, which will also be attended by the Spanish Ambassador, Carlos Bastarreche.

Subsequently, Reyes Maroto and Xiana Méndez will hold a meeting with the President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom, Eduardo Barrachina, and with members of the Executive Committee. In parallel, Isabel Oliver will meet with British tour operators.

This working day at the Spanish Embassy in the United Kingdom is framed as part of the initiatives set by the meeting of the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Monitoring of Brexit, held last Thursday, at which it could be seen that Spain is ready to mitigate the consequences of a potential no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism is one of the departments of the Government of Spain to have developed the most initiatives to apply the contingency measures included in Royal Decree-Law 5/2019, of 1 March, to maintain the normal development of Spain's trade flows and economic interests. These measures include the allocation of human and material resources, controls associated with the trade of goods, subsidies to prepare companies and communication actions, among others.

The State Secretariat for Trade has organised some 60 informative days on Brexit throughout Spain, in collaboration with different entities, and is preparing a new round of explanatory workshops to be held in the coming weeks. In addition, the web page of the State Secretariat has a specific banner dealing with Brexit.

Furthermore, the "Brexit cheque" has been started up - a discount on the price of personalised services for companies - to support companies in adapting to the new market conditions. 482 services have been carried out for companies, of which 35 have been provided in the United Kingdom and the rest in third countries.

Through Turespaña, the State Secretariat for Tourism has developed an intense loyalty campaign for British visitors. It has also held meetings with agents and operators from both countries and undertaken informative actions at international trade fairs (Fitur Madrid, World Travel Market in London, ITB Berlin) in order to prepare the sector for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.

Non official translation