OPINION/COMMENTARY

EU Trade Bait

It is now European mantra that the US does not support multilateral institutions, like the Kyoto Protocol. In possibly his last act as European Trade Commissioner, Pascal Lamy has shown that the EU is now prepared to "entice" countries to follow its environmental policies. He called it "Soft Power". It is trade bait for poor countries and that is bad news for them. People are right to wonder who and what is next. At a press conference in Brussels on 20 October, Lamy announced that the EU would give preferential access to its markets if poor countries passed an EU test. They had to accede to a set of international conventions on environment, labor and human rights nominated by the EU. He highlighted the Kyoto Protocol. For nearly 10 years the EU tried, without success, to get the WTO to approve compliance with environmental standards as a pre-condition for access to markets. Research by the US National Foreign Trade Council shows it has gone ahead anyway and unilaterally imposed its own restrictions....