Willie Rennie argues today that we need to make sure that we keep access to EU markets easy for business. We don’t want to be putting borders up, creating more red tape, which could cause problems and cut jobs. He says:

At the heart of the argument for remaining in Europe is a single market, making trade easier, and allowing businesses based on innovation and excellence to thrive is going to underpin our future success.

That was the argument that won the independence referendum and is just as powerful now.

Three million jobs in Britain depend on Europe. We need to make Europe easy for business.

As part of Europe we are part of an economic market worth trillions. There are 500 million customers.

It means that a Scottish company that is good and efficient at its job can expand across the continent.

Easy access to 500 million customers is worth millions of jobs in Britain.

It is similar to argument about remaining in the UK. As part of Britain, Scotland has trade across that border worth billions.

We know there can be a “border effect” which damages trade across any border, however allied the economies and benevolent the relationships.

It happens without a physical border.

Perhaps most starkly, the border effect reduces trade between the United States and Canada by 44 per cent.

And that is even with the successes of the NAFTA free trade agreement which has seen trade more than triple, reaching a trillion dollars.

To me it is instinctive economics that a small company looking to expand will choose first to develop within its jurisdiction.

If you have just spent years building your business and getting to grips with the red tape, the last thing you need is a whole new variety of red tape, even if it’s written in the same language

The benefits to Scottish and British business are huge and can be bigger still.