Better out than in

The following summary is extracted from a report found on the New Frontiers Foundation

The UK attracts more investment than Germany, France, and Italy combined. There is no sign that keeping the pound is damaging this, or infact doing anything to this at all, as most companies favour the regulatory and legal systems of this country over Euroland. Exchange rate risk is not a major factor in long term investment decisions, you would be stupid not to invest in the USA because exchange rates can change, the returns on investment of the dynamic US economy more than cancel out these short term fluctuations. If anyone was truely worried about currency fluctuations it should be remembered that it is the dollar not the Euro that remains the global currency of choice. By staying out of the Euro our exchange rate has remained more stable relative the dollar, to the currency of the largest and most dynamic economy in the world, than the Euro has.

Despite the government claims that over haft our trade is with the EU the actual figure is 49%, under haft, which accounts for 19% of UK GDP, and this figure is declining. We infact have a 6% trade defict with Euroland, meaning where we to pull out and they try anything nasty they would have more to lose than we would. The simple fact that they couldn't do this as we would still be a member of the EEA and EFTA which both have free trade agreements with Euroland, and that any sanctions they decided to try and impose would be ruled illegal by the WTO. Not that the single market can be seen as a catalyst for improved future trade either as according to the Kok Report for the Commision (2004) and UNCTAD (2004) intra-eu trade, goods and services, has shrunk since the launch of the single market.

Reports by the US Senate, the IEA, and others have found no evidence for the claim that leaving the EU would have a large and negative effect on UK trade and investment. Being outside the EU's Common Commercial Policy and CAP would allow the UK to remove damaging tariffs and restrections on trade, while changing our relationships with the SM [single market] would allow us to trade almost as freely as we do now without the large and growing cost of EU regulation.