Electrical engineering and the European Community

There is no doubt that the European Economic Community is today Britain´s biggest expanding market for export. Between 1970 and 1972 when Britain was outside the EEC it had been sharply declining. By contrast, British exports to the EEC have risen by 87% in real terms between 1972 and the first quarter of 1977. On the other hand, British exports to the rest of the world rose only 49% in real terms in the same period. If the EEC had remained the `rest of the world¿ and grown at the same rate of around 49%, Britain would now be losing export worth over some £2.2 billion a year. That has meant an immense saving in British jobs, probably around 450 000 altogether. There is therefore a major national incentive for everyone in British industry to `think European¿ in the years that lie ahead