4 ms·
One thing the EU does is prevent a "race to the bottom" with regards to foreign trade agreements and tariffs. For example, if Poland wants to trade with China,
by socialist_coder 10y ago
One thing the EU does is prevent a "race to the bottom" with regards to foreign trade agreements and tariffs. For example, if Poland wants to trade with China, they cannot negotiate directly. They must go through the EU. This prevents China from playing EU countries against each other to get better and better trade deals.
The EU also has labor and human rights protections built into it, so factories that move from Germany to Romania see far less benefit than a factory moving from the US to Mexico.
- johnnyhillbilly 10y agoReally? What about Ireland? They call it the Celtic tiger, but it is really the Celtic leech upon the rest of Europe.
- nazgob 10y agoIt works with trade deals, taxes are not harmonized.
- Turing_Machine 10y agoAn alternative view would be that it makes things much more convenient for bad actors because they only have to bribe one set of bureaucrats. Regulatory capture is a thing.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoBoth views may be valid because the "bad actors" are sentient human beings with working brains, not a force of nature. They have a goal, they'll pick whatever methods works depending on conditions.