I have not read many white papers but I would expect a certain level of complexity, honesty and impartiality. It is neither on all points. It is a hodgepodge of sexed-up powerpoint bullet points with no meat on the bones. The chart 9.1 is a perfect example on page 52; it is nonsensical as it just shows the UK and not other EU nations, BRICs or the world. The UK justs follow the World average, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.TRD.GNFS.ZS
Germany (our key competition) does “better” than the UK and Germany is in the EU,
France is equitable to the UK. That single metric crudely shows that the UK economy has not kept pace with the best of the EU economies and it hasn’t been due to the UK being in the EU but due to the UK failing to capitalise on its position within the EU. That metric is a side effect of many other policies and I would say that no figure is better or worse.
But that is assuming a bigger percentage is “better”. The United States is the EU and UK biggest trading partner and it has a lot lower number,
China and Brazil are also lower.
What is the number that the UK is after ? To do bigger than the EU ? or smaller towards the US numbers ?
If trade is what you are after then staying in the EU is the answer. If you leave the EU then your percentage of trade in proportion to GDP will drop.