This state of affairs is taken to-day as given and nobody contemplates seriously protecting Israeli industry from foreign competition by tariff and non-tariff barriers, as we used to do in the past. *** Nevertheless, there is still a bridge that we have not completely crossed. We already understand that to get integrated with the world economy we have to follow some rules.
Paramount among them are Maastricht-like criteria relating to fiscal discipline, public debt and price stability. However, since we are not a member of the EU, and not even one of the accession countries that wait to join in, there is no external pressure to abide by these rules.