THE First Minister is leading a Scottish delegation to Germany in a bid to improve business links.
Nicola Sturgeon said trade trips to Europe have taken on a new importance and warned that “innovative Scottish firms” must not be stifled by a hard Brexit.
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The Scottish Development International (SDI) delegation to Berlin includes 12 companies looking to grow their businesses in Germany or aiming to break into the country for the first time.
Companies represented include Thistly Cross Cider of East Lothian, Edinburgh-based compostable packaging manufacturer Vegware and Port Glasgow firm Kare Orthopaedics.
Scotland exports around £2 billion of goods annually to Germany, its fourth largest export market.
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The First Minister said: “The ongoing risks posed by Brexit only reinforces our determination to promote Scotland in Europe and around the world.
“SDI is doubling its representatives in Europe, while our newly opened hub in Berlin will soon be followed by Paris, adding to our EU offices in Brussels, London and Dublin.
“Scotland is a hugely attractive place for companies in Germany and throughout the EU to do business with and invest in. Indeed, 155 German companies currently employ 18,000 people in Scotland.
“We cannot allow a hard Brexit to destroy that, or to stifle innovative Scottish firms looking to expand. That is why we continue to set out the unequivocal case for continued membership of the Single Market and Customs Union.”
Sturgeon will also meet Niels Annen, Germany’s minister of state at the Foreign Office, in the first ministerial meeting between the Scottish Government and the new German administration.
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