23 APRIL 1994, Page 26

. . . half as free as trade

AT NEXT YEAR'S Marrakesh meeting, I confidently forecast, the French will be explaining why they have not done what they said they would do this year. All this Gattery doesn't count, they will say, if it means competing with cheap labour. They have been whistling this tune and hoping the Americans will pick it up. It sounds more catchy when the cheap labourers are a long way away — in the Far East, for example, and even in countries with quite high standards of living, which make them not so much cheap as competitive. Free trade has a long way to go.