Scotland's Economy

Freeports

November 16, 2020 by Ivan McKee MSP No Comments | Category Brexit, Economy, Uncategorized

Statement from Trade, Investment and Innovation Minister Ivan McKee on freeports:

“Freeports cannot and will not offset the damage caused by Brexit, which is taking Scotland and the UK out of the world’s biggest free trade area and single market.

“Our ambition for Scotland’s economy is to continue to build a high productivity, high wage, innovative economy built on the strength of our world leading technology, businesses and academic clusters. This is the focus of our inward investment strategies. We remain concerned that the focus of freeports may be positioned to compete on low cost, low wage, low value opportunities with which they are often associated globally.

“In Scotland, we have our own approach to developing and growing the economy and we will want to ensure that the UK Government’s proposals for freeports can be made to work with our ambition for a low carbon and wellbeing economy, that also targets investment geographically and strategically. We are also determined to ensure a green recovery from the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, with new, clean and green jobs being created.

“Now that more details of the UK governments proposals are available we will be surveying the views of stakeholders and partners in the public and private sectors across Scotland in the coming days, and the results of this survey will be crucial in informing our response.”

Tags: Brexit, Freeports, ivan mckee

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