Complying with EU business regulations will be Brexit’s biggest cost

SIR – There should be little difficulty in agreeing a mutually beneficial way of avoiding trade tariffs after Brexit.

The real problem lies in the EU’S protectionist restrictions on imports. As we gain freedom to regulate our own business and industry, the EU is unlikely to recognise our regulations as equivalent to theirs. Hence, frictionless exports to the EU may require EU compliance, certified by an agreed agency.

We would have to bear the cost of compliance verification, as well as our share of the costs of any EU agency in which we continue to participate, such as Europol, Euratom, the European Space Agency or the European Patent Office. There is no legal or moral case for any other continued contribution. Ralph Benjamin

Exmouth, Devon

SIR – It was surprising that Robert Peston did not challenge Yvette Cooper’s claim, on his Sunday show, that food prices would rise if we left the EU on WTO trade terms.

The opposite is true. When we joined what was then the Common Market, we were forced to apply hefty tariffs to all food coming to Britain from outside that market for the first time since the repeal of the Corn Laws. This raised food prices significantly.

As soon as we can source food supplies from the rest of the world as we used to, free of hefty EU import duties, prices will fall sharply again. R B Skepper

Sudbourne, Suffolk

SIR – I live in the Isle of Man. Though geographically part of the British Isles, we are not part of the United Kingdom or in the EU.

Nevertheless, people here travel to and from the EU and live and work there with no border problems at all. All that is needed is our Manx passports. Similarly, many people come from the EU to live and work here. We export and import goods and materials to and from the EU without difficulties. About once a year I send a pallet-load of books to Greece with no more paperwork than my sender’s address and that of the recipient.

So why all the fuss about the difficulties Britain would face were it to join us and come out? Ian K Bleasdale

Maughold, Isle of Man

SIR – By demanding a significant financial settlement before starting trade talks, the 27 members of the EU are holding Britain to ransom in a manner not required by Article 50.

Even were Britain to agree to pay such a ransom, there is no guarantee that this would result in a favourable free-trade agreement, as the EU has stated that any future relationship must be worse than that which currently exists. Meanwhile, Germany and France are leading attempts to draw businesses and jobs away from this country. I therefore agree with the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, in one respect: this does, at the moment, make the EU the “enemy”. Phil Mobbs

Wantage, Oxfordshire