[heero_yuy]

Britain’s membership of the European Union is shown to have had no positive impact on trade with other members in a detailed analysis of UK exports published today by the cross-party think tank Civitas.

A painstaking study of British export figures since 1960 exposes the “empty rhetoric” behind oft-repeated claims that the EU gives the UK an essential trade advantage.

Britain’s trade with other EU nations accounts for no more of its trade with all leading economies than it did on joining the European Economic Community in 1973, the report shows. Meanwhile, exports to non-EU nations Iceland, Norway and Switzerland have increased enormously over the same period.

Full report here

Thus nailing the lie that the UK would suffer outside the EU, wheras in reality the EU has failed us.

But Burrage says: “To present it as a success, in the manner of the UK Department of Business, Innovation & Skills’ recent portrayal of the doubling of exports to new member countries, or to claim it is a prized achievement, or a ‘privilege’, or ‘a vital national interest’ that must be defended at all costs, only sounds vaguely plausible if UK exporters are never compared with those of other member or non-member countries, and if their performance in the Single Market is never compared with their performance before it existed, or with their performance in other markets.

“Once such comparisons begin to be made, these claims are seen to be empty rhetoric, and those who repeat them may be seen to have been misleading themselves and others about the merits of the Single Market. Unfortunately, constant repetition of them over recent years has already done immense harm, since they have discouraged close investigation, measurement and analysis of the UK experience within the Single Market. We have, therefore, still not begun to understand what has gone wrong and how it might be fixed.”