IN Hear All Sides (Dec 6) Alec Telford talks glibly of yet to be negotiated trade deals with the rest of the world. What deals will they be?

Donald Trump’s mantra is America First. US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross has emphasised that trade agreements will be on their terms, meaning chickens washed in chlorine to disguise lower hygiene standards, other meats full of antibiotics and growth hormones, and wholesale attack on the NHS.

Why should we do better with our own trade agreements, if ever they can be negotiated?

Germany already exports three times as much to China as the UK.

A recent statement by Sir Martin Donnelly, former permanent secretary at the Department for International Trade, who ought to have some idea of what he is talking about, suggested that it would be madness to even think of leaving the single market and the customs union.

Going independent means building new border posts, enforcing vast amounts of certification, employing thousands of customs officials, and setting up at least thirty new national regulators and building several square miles of lorry container parks at Dover and elsewhere so that all incoming goods can be inspected and certified.

Finally of course, staying within the single market and customs union would solve the Irish border problem at a stroke.

Eric Gendle, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough