SUPPORTERS of the euro often claim that "over half our trade is with Europe" -- and that's why we should join the single currency.

But less than 30 per cent of the turnover of UK plc is export business, of which only around half goes to Europe.

Some 85 per cent of our trade is within the UK or with the rest of the world so why give up the pound for just 15 per cent of the trade that is with Europe?

New research carried out by Roger Bootle, former Group Chief Economist at HSBC, one of the world's biggest banks, concludes that the rest of the world is more important to British trade than the 12 euro-currency countries, and is likely to become more so as the population of the EU declines while the rest of the world is still rising.

The report also says the pound and dollar are overwhelmingly more important for British trade than the euro and that joining the euro would not increase stability for our foreign trade.

DAVID BRIGGS (Chairman, Business for Sterling, North West), Spear Street, Manchester.