ABSTRACT
Margaret Thatcher's trade agenda sought to build on three of the four freedoms outlined in the Treaty of Rome such as goods, capital and services. It notably omitted the fourth, labour, which was necessary for free movement of services but entailed a challenge to borders and the right of states to choose who should enter. In line with the UK's long-standing preference for European co-operation on trade, as well as her own neoliberal economics, Thatcher was keen to make the Community more competitive at a time when it seemed to be slipping behind Japan, having long been behind the USA. For many European leaders, notably Commission President Jacques Delors, the market reforms entailed the corollaries of social policy and economic and monetary union. Sir Edward Du Cann, meanwhile, expressed his concern over the prospect of political union: It is a great step towards the creation of a European super-state and of a European political union.
