Madam,

I’m glad to see that Chris Samuel (‘It’s all about believing in our country’) has belief in his country and faith in the WTO terms of trade, post Brexit.

He is of the opinion that most of the world’s trade is carried out under WTO terms.

Wrong! As a monetary proportion of international trade undertaken the amount negotiated under WTO terms, whereby standardised tariffs are paid, is barely significant.

Most trade is by negotiation, which frequently takes years to arrange and is always a double edged sword.

There is only one country on the planet that undertakes trade wholly under WTO rules, namely Mauritania. Fifty per cent of their export revenue is through raw iron ore for which, a two per cent tariff is raised. Compare this to Welsh Lamb, where a 40 per cent-plus tariff applies. Actually, their imports are mostly tariff free, but due to their impoverishment is termed 'Aid'.

To put matters into perspective, their GDP is 0.2 per cent of that of the UK and it is thought that up to 17 per cent of the population are effectively enslaved.

So is this the model for our economy, otherwise known as the 'Mauritania Option', that Chris Samuel is recommending for us? God help us!

Yours, etc, Siôn Griffiths, Trawsgoed.

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