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		Letter to the Editor Nottinghamshire Evening Post - Thursday, 14th December 2006 Dear Sir, John Gretton (Letters, 7th December) is sticking to his spurious claim that the EU produces only ten percent of our laws. So readers have a choice. They can take John Gretton's word for it, or they can accept the official view of the British and German governments, both of which put the figure at over 50%. Meantime in the same edition (it was a bumper day for the euro-quislings!), Peter Valentine dismisses projections of a dramatic reduction in the EU's share of world trade, on the basis that with China and India growing, something has to give. So that's all right, then. Or is it? How come that the same official projections from the OECD and the EU Commission show the USA holding share of world trade over the next three decades, while the EU share halves? Doesn't the US face the same competition from India and China? The difference is partly demographic (Europeans seem to be giving up on children), but partly economic. Long term EU growth rates are lower than the US, because of a low work ethic, a regulatory structure that disincentivises work and enterprise and reduces competitiveness, and a fudged single currency that just isn't working. So by all means let's trade and cooperate with our European neighbours. But let's not tie ourselves exclusively, or preferentially, to an economic area in long-term, relative decline. Roger Helmer Conservative MEP for the East Midlands