During a discussion in the European Parliament, the European Central Bank president referenced a 2024 International Monetary Fund report that found that intra-EU barriers to trade amount to a 44% tariff on goods and a 110% duty on services – far above the punishing levies that US President Donald Trump has slapped on EU exporters over the last year.
It’s not a matter of unregulating trade, but rather a matter of harmonizing regulations. An idea I’ve been playing with in my head is having Mad Libs type of laws at the EU level, where there is a common framework, but the smaller details become country specific