Hello James,
Yep,
I agree, that always bugged me too,
For some reason,
The Feds signed the Treaty of Algeron with the Romulan Empire,
in it the Feds promised NOT to develop "cloaking technology",
In my opinion,
I have never really heard a convincing reason why the Feds would have said,
"Ok, no Cloaks"
Here is a ST: TNG link
The PegasusTNG #
[ Ooops site down, I''ll put it in later]
PS, It always seemed like a really bone-head treaty,
Take care,
GeneralWolfe