Western Europe: A Time of Paralysis

Western Europe's prosperity is the result, as much as anything else, of the reduction over the past few years of commercial barriers between its countries. Though most of the Continent is split into two giant trading blocs—the six-country Common Market and the seven-country European Free Trade Association—trade among members of each bloc and even between the blocs has climbed to levels scarcely dreamed of only five years ago. Europe should be eagerly pressing ahead to whittle down the remaining roadblocks to greater trade and prosperity—but it is not. It is stalled in a growing paralysis of decision making that...

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