Naming & Shaming

In a stroke of genius, the chaps that deal with trade issues have come up with a creative way of tackling the issues of globalisation. They will name companies that make big profits. Amazing idea isn't it.

European retailers and manufacturers which fail to pass on to consumers their savings from cheap foreign imports and from moving production offshore will be named by Brussels.

Cigar chomping fat cats must be shaking in their boots. They have been found out.

The 2005 liberalisation of the textile market, which led to a surge in Chinese imports. “Prices fell in some member states and not others,” said a Commission official. “We are asking why this is the case.”

Now let me hazard a guess. Those countries where cost savings were not passed on are either, places where the cost of business is rising, or where the retail market is not competitive enough. In such a case, a manager who passed the benefits of globalisation on to his customers, would be in breach of his duty to shareholders.

Perhaps the EU should ask an alternative question. Why, despite all the talk of free markets, is there no real competition in so many countries? The dead hand of the state perhaps?