Draft opinion
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17 a. In order to ensure that medicines and medical equipment are available in the European Union's internal market and for the reason of protecting EU consumers, it has to be considered that the United Kingdom is among the 10 most important exporters of medicines and medical equipment in the world, worth $ 19.7 billion in exports in 2018 (which represents as much as 5.3% of total world exports); for this reason, underlines that special attention in negotiations should as well be devoted to the issue of future trade in medicines and medical products between the UK and the EU.