No wonder everyone was so astonished.
One had to know that most so-called international trade agreements at this time amounted to little more than pulling a tariff figure out of thin air, or deciding whether some commodity would be banned or admitted.
Once problems arose, either great powers forced smaller ones to cede their interests, or they simply tore each other apart.
The earlier Seine-Rhine River Trade Agreement had already been a model of such agreements, while the current Common Market rules were advanced and civilized by an entire order of magnitude.
At the very least, in the eyes of all member states, there was not a single flaw to be found in the terms. Great and small powers were treated equally, with some provisions even leaning toward the smaller countries.
For example, there were clauses protecting the disadvantaged industries of smaller nations. Elections for the Arbitration Committee also gave every member state one vote; Modena and France had the same say.
If they did not join such a perfect Common Market, they would practically be letting themselves down!
And Joseph had long anticipated their reaction.
What a joke. The WTO rules had been devised by late-twentieth-century economists and diplomats racking their brains. Even nations in the information age could find no fault with them, let alone these countries still in the early stages of industrialization.
It was a crushing blow from a higher dimension of ideas.
Yet in reality, these clauses that were fair and just to every member state were inherently unfair.
It was like putting Tyson and Lin Daiyu in a boxing match. If the rules bound them both equally, would that make the fight fair?
Likewise, France's size and national strength utterly crushed the other small countries under the same rules.
The simplest example was that