I have been sent an extract from official figures to remind me that our trade with the rest of the world, largely conducted under WTO rules with no special Agreements or FTAs, has been growing far faster than trade to the EU.
Since 1998 our exports of goods to the EU have grown at just 0.2% a year. Our goods export to non EU has grown 16X faster at 3.3%. Last year we ran an overall deficit of £72 billion w/ the EU, but a surplus of £42 bn with the rest of the world.
If this single market and customs union is such a great boon to us, how come our goods trade has scarcely grown with it for almost twenty years? And if trading under WTO rules is so difficult, how come our non EU trade is bigger than our EU trade and growing much faster?
