'We can't reverse globalisation' - EC Commissioner

[He3]

Warning against protectionism, the commissioner said the EU cannot protect its companies from the effects of globalisation, and should not try to do so.

“We can’t reverse globalisation. It wasn’t imposed by China, or India. It was the western industrialised countries that have imposed it on them.

“We have forced developing countries to open up their markets, so we should not complain. It wasn’t foreseen that it would create very strong competitors.”

German commissioner Gunther Verheugen (as IT's Mark Hennessy describes him) speaking to an Oireachtas Committee yesterday. Much more of interest in Mark's full report here -

Commissioner warns Ireland on double standards - The Irish Times - Fri, Feb 27, 2009

[ibis]

Goodness me - that is actually an interesting article.

[Evestown2]

The man is right. We let the genie out of the bottle.

[anewbeginning]

Yet another of FF's legacy in office is that our manufacturing base has been greatly undermined and we no longer export as much as we should. They put all their time and effort into helping their friends in banking and development and let the rest of the economy whither. The problems we have in Ireland have been 10 years in the making but thats what happens when you let a crowd of economic illiterates run the country, mayhem and economic decline usually ensues.

We just cannot compete with international rivels, we aren't innovative or inventive enough, we aren't entrepreneurial enough, and the government as well as the EU is responsible becuase the EU ban state aid and state aid to smes is important in a country like Ireland unlike say Germany where you have a mature corporate sector.

[Dios]

Not to play devil's advocate here, but Ireland has benefited greatly from globalisation with all the FDI coming in.

[Akrasia]

The man is right. We let the genie out of the bottle.

no he's not, we could easily reverse globalisation, all we would have to do is raise import taxes.

done.

Pretending that it would be unfair to 'developing countries' is nonsense. They have been raped for years, and they will continue to be raped as long as we force them to keep import taxes low and bombard them with subsidised agricultural produce while sucking them dry of their valuable natural resources.

[JCSkinner]

[I]Warning against protectionism, the commissioner said the EU cannot protect its companies from the effects of globalisation, and should not try to do so.

“We can’t reverse globalisation...

Yes. We. Can!

[ibis]

Yet another of FF's legacy in office is that our manufacturing base has been greatly undermined and we no longer export as much as we should. They put all their time and effort into helping their friends in banking and development and let the rest of the economy whither. The problems we have in Ireland have been 10 years in the making but thats what happens when you let a crowd of economic illiterates run the country, mayhem and economic decline usually ensues.

We just cannot compete with international rivels, we aren't innovative or inventive enough, we aren't entrepreneurial enough, and the government as well as the EU is responsible becuase the EU ban state aid and state aid to smes is important in a country like Ireland unlike say Germany where you have a mature corporate sector.

The EU don't ban state aid (hence Poland's €50m for Dell), and state aid of various kinds is available to SME's. What screwed us was that it was impossible to get investment for most of the last decade, because the "smart money" was being invested in buying yet more houses - easy money.

[Dios]

no he's not, we could easily reverse globalisation, all we would have to do is raise import taxes.

And our cost of living goes through the roof while wages drop. We are an island, after all.

done.

Yup, stick a fork in us.

and bombard them with subsidised agricultural produce while sucking them dry of their valuable natural resources.

Thats called war proofing. You need to keep your staple food supply local, because you don't want some tinpot dictator to have that kind of power over your population, and the only way local producers can compete with slave-wage third world agriculture is by subsidies and tariffs.

[Dios]

The EU don't ban state aid (hence Poland's €50m for Dell),

As I understand it there are fairly stringent EU rules about state aid. Just that some countries ignore them while they can, a bit like Italy ignores EU immigration regs.