At 11:47 AM 3/6/98 -0800, The Guardian wrote:
>EU-US TRADE ZONE LAUNCHED
I'm wondering what to make of this. It's rather astonishing to me how quickly
the U.S. drops one or another scheme to expand markets for the export of
commodities and capital (FTAA, MAI) in the face of momentarily inopportune
political conditions, only to very quickly propose (or at least seem hospitable
to) something else.
It seems to me that this proposal comes out of a mutual recognition by both
the U.S. and Europe that East Asia is a basket case and can be left to sink on
its own, since Japan is owed the most in East Asia and is unwilling to act as
a regional hegemon and reflate its own economy.
But (per our recent discussion on EMU) it seems like now is not the time for
the EU to be pushing for bilateral liberalization given popular fears that
EMU is going to eviscerate social democracy. It seems like _really_ ill timing.
And is it reasonable to suppose that _all_ tariffs and quotas on _all_ traded
goods/services (save agriculture and culture industry products) will be
eliminated ? This just seems like some Ricardian wet dream, but completely
politically unfeasible.
John Gulick
John Gulick
Ph. D. Candidate
Sociology Graduate Program
University of California-Santa Cruz
(415) 643-8568
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
