> In this month issue of Le Monde Diplomatique there is a paper on Poland that
> says 75% of agricultural products will revert to 0% tariff on import and that
> a lot of money is spent on catching up with the 'acquis communautaires', on
> buying Nato compatible weapon systems and on strenghtening the borders (to
> comply with schengen?) leaving little to welfare.
One shouldn't underestimate the Poles. Only 13.9% of Poland's exports to the EU are agricultural goods (this is according to <http://europa.eu.int/comm/trade/pdf/poland.pdf>); the future, obviously, is in value-added machinery and goods. Parts of the acquis are quite civilized -- social protections, environmental regulations, etc. They've had fifty years of practice in telling superpowers to step off, in subtle sorts of ways -- the advantage of comparative disadvantage, as it were. Poland's foreign debt remains pretty low, too, suggesting that a SE Asian-style crisis isn't about to happen.
-- Dennis