ABSTRACT
The initiative for a free trade area approach towards further trade liberalisation would have to come from North American and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries; that is, from those that are being obliged to grapple with the problems of being discriminated against in the Common Market. International political objectives, however, are the primary considerations which shape United States (US) trade policy. The preoccupation of Washington with complex Asian-Pacific issues contrasts with trade policies orientated towards European-Atlantic issues. The problem of expanding trade opportunities for developing countries is incentive enough for the US Administration to examine seriously a broad-based free trade area, providing as it could the co-operative basis on which a system of tariff preferences for less developed economies might be launched so that the burden of low-cost imports would be shared by most developed countries.
