Christopher Booker: it is perfectly possible to trade freely with the single market without having to be a member of the EU. Dozens of countries around the world already do so, led by the two most prosperous countries in Europe itself, Norway and Switzerland. Not the least disconcerting thing about Ukip and my friend Mr Farage, dedicated as they are to extricating Britain from the EU, is that they do not make this the centrepiece of their policy: that we could continue to trade with the EU just as we do now, simply by invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, and joining Norway and Switzerland outside it as members of the European Free Trade Association (Efta). Furthermore, this would give us considerably more influence over deciding the single market rules than we have now, with only 8 per cent of the votes; not only because Efta is fully consulted before those rules are agreed, but also because, as a sovereign nation, we would sit in our own right at the “top tables” of all those international bodies such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, whence many of the rules now originate.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 16:56:31 +0000
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