9 FEBRUARY 2002, Page 32

From Mr Stephen Peddle Sir: Matthew Parris asks, 'Why would

membership of Nafta not threaten our sovereignty in the way that joining EMU would?'.

The answer is that Nafta is a free-trade association (that's the Ita bit). EMU is not; it is a project to achieve Economic and Monetary Union. We joined a free-trade association called the Common Market, which, as I recall, morphed into the EEC and then the EU. EMU is a necessary step on the road to morphing the EU into a European federal state. It is an economic project that is driven entirely by political ambition — that is a fact, whether you agree with the ambition or not.

Stephen Peddie

Abinger Hammer, Surrey