International Law

Protectionism Watch

By Stan

Another country not being protectionist (h/t Americablog):

France was embroiled in a protectionism row yesterday after the government announced that the assembly of some Renault cars would be shifted from Slovenia to the Paris area, creating 400 new jobs.

President Nicolas Sarkozy later insisted that the move would not cause any job losses in a fellow EU state, but the European Commission said it planned to launch an investigation.

M. Sarkozy infuriated eastern European members of the EU last month when he linked ?6bn (£5.6bn) in cheap loans to the struggling French auto industry to a guarantee that car-making jobs would remain in France. He even questioned why French car firms needed plants in eastern Europe at all. Alarm bells rang in Brussels and across eastern Europe yesterday morning when the French Industry Minister, Luc Chatel, announced that production of some Clio cars would transfer from Slovenia to a giant Renault assembly plant at Flins in the Seine valley, west of Paris.

OK, let’s tally up the scorecard.

1. France’s Renault move to shift jobs home from Slovenia isn’t protectionist, just a good business move.

2. The U.S. budget’s Buy American provision isn’t protectionist, legislators just love the US of A.

3. China’s rejection of Coke’s bid to buy Huiyuan juice wasn’t protectionist but a ruling by the government that just happened to keep local assets out of the hands of a foreign buyer.

I’m starting to wonder what real protectionism looks like.

© Stan for China Hearsay, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us

Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 22, 2009 (boomark / email).