Comments on: The EU and its importance http://dumbagent.com/the-eu-and-its-importance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-eu-and-its-importance Your daily dose of Economics Thu, 17 May 2012 13:17:35 +0000 hourly 1 By: Ocean http://dumbagent.com/the-eu-and-its-importance/comment-page-1/#comment-5710 Ocean Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:15:34 +0000 http://dumbagent.com/?p=1319#comment-5710 That's true. And it will never be a sovereign country (at least in the next decade or two), so it will never be a superpower in the sense of China or the US. But it is still a trading partner in itself, due to its relaxing of internal trade barriers and, unfortunately, its fortification of external barriers. Since the EU's raison d'etre is almost entirely due to trade, it would be interesting to see if and how the relaxation of internal barriers has helped the EU, while the imposition of external barriers has created ill-will and trade spats with trading partners. Not that the politicians would pay much attention.. That’s true. And it will never be a sovereign country (at least in the next decade or two), so it will never be a superpower in the sense of China or the US. But it is still a trading partner in itself, due to its relaxing of internal trade barriers and, unfortunately, its fortification of external barriers.

Since the EU’s raison d’etre is almost entirely due to trade, it would be interesting to see if and how the relaxation of internal barriers has helped the EU, while the imposition of external barriers has created ill-will and trade spats with trading partners. Not that the politicians would pay much attention..

]]> By: Senectus http://dumbagent.com/the-eu-and-its-importance/comment-page-1/#comment-5706 Senectus Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:40:48 +0000 http://dumbagent.com/?p=1319#comment-5706 The EU cannot claim to be a World Power except as an aggregate statistic. It has successfully united the continent in terms of trade, both by reducing internal barriers and by creating tremendous synthetic barriers to trade with the rest of the world (i.e. internal subsidies, external quotas). But it has no common foreign policy, no common defense structure worth mentioning, and still cannot claim to be a single monolithic economy. As for a common culture, let's be grateful that Italy remains Italian, Sweden is Swedish, and that only the French are French. The EU cannot claim to be a World Power except as an aggregate statistic. It has successfully united the continent in terms of trade, both by reducing internal barriers and by creating tremendous synthetic barriers to trade with the rest of the world (i.e. internal subsidies, external quotas).

But it has no common foreign policy, no common defense structure worth mentioning, and still cannot claim to be a single monolithic economy. As for a common culture, let’s be grateful that Italy remains Italian, Sweden is Swedish, and that only the French are French.

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