Yorks Post wisdom.

From: John D Clark, Burnsall, North Yorkshire.

IT is becoming increasingly obvious that membership of the single market is not vital for British trade.
There are numerous reasons: more than 90 per cent of British imports are tariff free; the net cost of EU membership is 10 per cent of GDP (£139bn in 2009); there is a huge structural trade deficit with the EU; over 90 per cent of the British economy is not involved in exports to the EU; British export growth is better outside the EU because the EU under-performs economically; British import growth is more from outside the EU; the proportion of British exports going to the EU, already under half, is declining and a country doesn’t have to belong to the single market to export to it.
With regard to this last point, the United States and China sell more goods to the EU than does the UK. Closer to home, Norway and Switzerland export far more in relation to their GDP and population, five times and three times respectively.

One final observation: the ability of the EU to invest in those areas that would lead to a much-needed competitive economy in Europe is severely compromised by a Common Agricultural Policy that takes up roughly half of the EU budget, even though it accounts for only four per cent of EU GDP. In these difficult times when cuts are unavoidable, can we afford to ignore these facts?