Meeting of the Parliament 14 June 2017
Not right now; let me just finish this point.
Stakeholders are also calling for a more competitive tax system in Scotland. Thirteen leading business organisations across Scotland have called on the Scottish Government to abolish the large business supplement, which adversely affects 20,000 businesses across Scotland and penalises them with higher rates than are applied to their counterparts elsewhere in UK. My colleagues will expand on that during the debate but, with that unfair tax in place, it is not surprising that the rate of shop closures in Scotland is the highest of any part of the UK.
Stakeholders have also called on the Scottish Government to expand support for Scotland’s exporters and to boost trade with the rest of the UK. Indeed, that was a key finding of the recent report by the Economy Jobs and Fair Work Committee on the economic impact of leaving the EU. Evidence that was provided to the committee informed us that, in 2016, 65 per cent of our trade was with our domestic UK market, 20 per cent was with the rest of the world and 16 per cent was with the EU single market, and that the fastest growing areas of trade were with the rest of the UK and with the rest of the world. Reflecting those trading patterns, the committee heard evidence from a number of witnesses that more needs to be done to support Scottish businesses in exporting across the world, including to the emerging markets, and that Scotland’s number 1 trading priority must always be to keep the trading relationship with the rest of the UK open and fluid. The committee also heard evidence that Scottish businesses want the fullest possible access to the EU single market, which is exactly what the UK Government’s objectives have been and will continue to be in the Brexit negotiations.
I will give way now.