The Same Answer to Everything

Even with potential for starvation in the third world, they parrot the same old lame fake terroirism that props up “state champion” industries.

France has launched a political campaign to restore food protectionism at the heart of Europe’s agriculture policy as food riots erupt in poor countries and global leaders give warning of the dire consequences of soaring grain prices.

At a high-level EU agriculture meeting in Luxembourg, Michel Barnier, the French Agriculture Minister, called on Europe to establish a food security plan and to resist further cuts in Europe’s agriculture budget.

Mr Barnier said that the EU should not bow to pressure from the World Trade Organisation to reduce further its agricultural subsidies but instead should increase aid to farmers in developing countries.

I don’t know how someone could say that with a straight face.

Diplomatic sources in Brussels said that the Commission believed higher food prices would stimulate farming output.

“Our policy is to liberate production,” said one Commission source.

So liberate it, already! Stop trying to set prices. The only way you’d ever be prompted to say something like that in the face of high world market prices is if you were engaging in de-facto controlling of output, subsidies and prices in a fashion reminiscent of the soviets.

Elsewhere “standards” are invoked to keep trying to tax the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft (but not SAP, SAGE, Dassault Systems, or Business Objects) honest from competing on their patch.

The crime in there eyes is, of course, not enough creativity in couching your trade barriers from view.