Small nations have advantage - WTO boss

The Scottish National Party welcomed the comments on the BBC Scotland Politics Show by Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, in which he said that “small countries in an era of globalisation have a competitive advantage”, and that he was “personally all in favour of decentralisation”.

Welcoming his remarks SNP Westminster Leader Angus Robertson said:

“This is an extremely welcome statement by Mr Lamy.  The most successful economies are small, independent nations – and Scotland can join the ‘arc of prosperity’ around our shores.

“We know from the GERS report that Scotland is in a far stronger budgetary position than the UK as a whole.  In 2006-07, Scotland's current surplus stood at £837 million, or 0.7 per cent of GDP – compared with a UK deficit of £4.3 billion, or 0.3 per cent of GDP.

“And Mr Lamy’s comments underline that with independence Scotland can build a more dynamic and successful economic performance too.

“This is exactly the kind of positive debate that the SNP look forward to in the run-up to our planned independence referendum in 2010 – which Wendy Alexander has now effectively signed the Labour Party up to supporting.”