> because once you get in competitive mode, its a race to the bottom for everyone. I don't understand / buy that argument. I find it quite neo-liberal in the s

> because once you get in competitive mode, its a race to the bottom for everyone. I don't understand / buy that argument. I find it quite neo-liberal in the sense that it assumes countries will deterministically mindlessly engage in a race to the bottom. The "prisoners dilemma" is a problem of course. But people and countries can and do cooperate despite that. For this reason, it's not clear to me that EU countries would automatically slash their environment regulations and corruption prevention efforts in a "race to the bottom" if the EU wasn't there stopping them.