If You Make A Deal, Says The Us, Keep It

The new Trade Compliance Centre will monitor, investigate and evaluate foreign compliance with multilateral as well as bilateral trade agreements.

The centre is the brainchild of Stuart Eizenstat, former US ambassador to the EU. Concerned about protectionist pressures from both the right and the left, Eizenstat proposed the centre before leaving Brussels to take up his current job as commerce undersecretary for international trade.It is, he says, necessary to demonstrate in a physical, tangible way that when people agree to open markets, that will be followed through on and implemented''.

The looming elections make tough enforcement even more a political necessity. Long-time supporters of liberalised trade have been retiring in droves. Judging by their successors in the current Congress the newcomers have little faith in the promise of free trade, which many see as costing jobs in their constituencies.

 

The focus on compliance is a logical evolution for an administration that came to office with a tough but pro-trade'' agenda. It completed negotiations on