Madam,

“Sanity demands” that the UK remains in the Customs Union of the European Union, according to your comment column of 24 August by Patrick O’Brien.

Because otherwise the farming sector of the Welsh economy “could be hit badly”.

Wales accounts for around three per cent of the UK economy, and agriculture accounts for about 0.7 per cent of Gross Value Added (similar to GDP) in Wales. When I looked these figures up I was surprised at how small they were, but they are there in black and white.

And yet your columnist is arguing that this decision which is crucial for the future of the whole of the UK should depend on what is best for Welsh farming.

I certainly accept that the needs of the farming sector are not something to be taken lightly, because people’s livelihoods and communities and the rural environment are all at stake. But as I understand it, if we stay in the Customs Union we will not be able to do trade deals with the rest of the world, in which case the whole of the intended economic upside of Brexit would be ruled out, leaving us to make the best we can of the downside.

This is an odd kind of sanity being invoked.

Yours etc,

Dave Bradney, Joppa, Llanrhystud.

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