After All

Active use of trade policy instruments that are legally open to industry did not prevent the decay of electronics business. On the contrary, the conclusion is that negligence in application of the rules, certain personal political ambitions that did not aim at proper application of the law and even prejudices against application of internationally agreed law has created an unreliable trade environment. Serious, but unchecked and even unnoticed errors in the conduct of trade policy, have caused havoc. The book and this chapter mention some cases. The result has been catastrophic for European electronic industry. Industry is entitled to a reliable trade policy. Predictability of trade policy would be improved if it would be removed from the back rooms of member states’ ministries and would be transferred to a European level, partly to a specialised European court for recourse in cases of procedural errors. Since trade policy is the European competence, already established in the Treaty of Rome, democratic supervision could be enhanced by transferral of legislative powers to the European Parliament. This could also prevent that member states are played off against each other by foreign powers and the sometimes unfathomable but unchecked individual trade policy routes of some Community Commissioners.