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Sarkozy and EU preference

by Cyrille Tue Nov 13th, 2007 at 07:45:48 AM EST

Right, this is my first attempt at a post so bear with me, I fear it may not be optimal...

Nicolas Sarkozy réclame une "véritable préférence communautaire"

STRASBOURG (AP) - Nicolas Sarkozy a réclamé mardi devant le Parlement européen un débat sur "ce que doit être une véritable préférence communautaire". "L'Europe ne veut pas du protectionnisme mais l'Europe doit réclamer la réciprocité", a-t-il dit, dénonçant le "laisser-faire absolu". "L'Europe est attachée à la concurrence, mais l'Europe ne peut pas être seule au monde à en faire une religion". STRASBOURG (AP) - "Nicolas Sarkozy on tuesday, in front of the European parliement, requested a debate on "what must be a genuine EU preference". "Europe does not want protectionism but Europe should claim reciprocity," he said, denouncing "absolute laissez-faire." "Europe is keen on competition but cannot be alone in the world to make it a religion".

Well... Are we? I realise that some at the Commission may be seen as high priests of deregulation (which, by the way, is not the same as competition), but the Commission is not the whole of Europe. Europe having a religious competition stance? I have my doubts...Besides, there IS some EU preference going on. Now that does not mean that it would necessarily be useless to debate how much there should be, and how. But the bit about Europe alone in the world to make it a religion is a strawman -and a typical Sarkozyan one at that, in the campaign it was always about France being the "only country in the world/Europe to..."

"Nous devons être capables de faire autant pour nous protéger que ce que font les autres", a estimé le président français. "Si les autres régions du monde ont le droit de se défendre contre les dumpings, pourquoi l'Europe devrait les subir?", a-t-il lancé. "Si des nations défendent leurs agriculteurs, pourquoi l'Europe devrait-elle renoncer à défendre les siens?". "We must be able to do as much to protect ourselves as others do", reckoned the French president. "If other regions in the world are allowed to defend against dumpings, why should Europe face them?", he claimed. "If nations defend their farmers, why should Europe give up on defending its own?"

Now that really is disgraceful. I guess farmers in Africa are indeed unfairly defended by their governments. And of course, the one area where the EU has never done anything is agriculture. We all know that. Again, the same rethoric, implying something blatantly false to stimulate an outrage that has little reason to be.

Now if you ask me, I'm all for some kind of protection. But not based on nationality -on production standards, mostly environmental impact to be precise. Then, maybe African products will not be able to price out the French farmers in France, but the obscene event where European products can starve African farmers will at least be over. There is NO sense in burning fuel to export wheat produced with lots of chemicals to countries which have no competitive advantage in anything else to employ priced out local farmers.


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Right, this is my first attempt at a post so bear with me, I fear it may not be optimal...
Aha ha! Let me pop in with some friendly criticism of your work, then! (On formatting and style issues.)
  1. You need to provide a link to the article quoted: <a href="url here">Link text here</a>
  2. Putting the quoted and translated bits in <blockquote></blockquote> brackets will make it clearer which these bits are
  3. For an even better result, you may use nice side by side translation table boxes. A bit tricky to do by hand, easier with the TribExt Firefox plugin...
  4. You missed translating the following scentence: "L'Europe ne veut pas du protectionnisme mais l'Europe doit réclamer la réciprocité", a-t-il dit, dénonçant le "laisser-faire absolu".

I did some quick reformatting of your work. Try copying and pasting the following into a diary page. (possibly re-translating the sentence you were missing. (bolded below) I used the google translate output with a very slight modification. Also, replace the bolded link stuff.)

<a href="url here">Link text here</a><br><table cellpadding="5" style="border-collapse:collapse"> <tr> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(153, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 224); color: rgb(153, 32, 32);" width="49%"><cite> STRASBOURG (AP) - Nicolas Sarkozy a réclamé mardi devant le Parlement européen un débat sur "ce que doit être une véritable préférence communautaire". "L'Europe ne veut pas du protectionnisme mais l'Europe doit réclamer la réciprocité", a-t-il dit, dénonçant le "laisser-faire absolu". "L'Europe est attachée à la concurrence, mais l'Europe ne peut pas être seule au monde à en faire une religion".</cite></td> <td width="2%"></td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(10, 111, 10); background-color: rgb(234, 255, 234); color: rgb(10, 111, 10);" width="49%"> STRASBOURG (AP) - "Nicolas Sarkozy on tuesday, in front of the European parliement, requested a debate on "what must be a genuine EU preference". "Europe does not want protectionism but Europe should claim reciprocity," he said, denouncing "absolute laissez-faire." "Europe is keen on competition but cannot be alone in the world to make it a religion".</td></tr></table><br>Well... Are we? I realise that some at the Commission may be seen as high priests of deregulation (which, by the way, is not the same as competition), but the Commission is not the whole of Europe. Europe having a religious competition stance? I have my doubts...Besides, there IS some EU preference going on. Now that does not mean that it would necessarily be useless to debate how much there should be, and how. But the bit about Europe alone in the world to make it a religion is a strawman -and a typical Sarkozyan one at that, in the campaign it was always about France being the "only country in the world/Europe to..."<p><table cellpadding="5" style="border-collapse:collapse"><tr> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(153, 32, 32); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 224); color: rgb(153, 32, 32);" width="49%"><cite>"Nous devons être capables de faire autant pour nous protéger que ce que font les autres", a estimé le président français. "Si les autres régions du monde ont le droit de se défendre contre les dumpings, pourquoi l'Europe devrait les subir?", a-t-il lancé. "Si des nations défendent leurs agriculteurs, pourquoi l'Europe devrait-elle renoncer à défendre les siens?".</cite> </td> <td width="2%"></td> <td style="border: 1px solid rgb(10, 111, 10); background-color: rgb(234, 255, 234); color: rgb(10, 111, 10);" width="49%"> "We must be able to do as much to protect ourselves as others do", reckoned the French president. "If other regions in the world are allowed to defend against dumpings, why should Europe face them?", he claimed. "If nations defend their farmers, why should Europe give up on defending its own?"</td></tr></table><br>Now that really is disgraceful. I guess farmers in Africa are indeed unfairly defended by their governments. And of course, the one area where the EU has never done anything is agriculture. We all know that. Again, the same rethoric, implying something blatantly false to stimulate an outrage that has little reason to be.<p>Now if you ask me, I'm all for some kind of protection. But not based on nationality -on production standards, mostly environmental impact to be precise. Then, maybe African products will not be able to price out the French farmers in France, but the obscene event where European products can starve African farmers will at least be over. There is NO sense in burning fuel to export wheat produced with lots of chemicals to countries which have no competitive advantage in anything else to employ priced out local farmers.

by someone (s0me1smail(a)gmail(d)com) on Tue Nov 13th, 2007 at 08:36:11 AM EST
Thanks a lot -it will be a long while until I manage that on my own...

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Tue Nov 13th, 2007 at 10:00:52 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Welcome! Well, first and foremost, keep writing.

You can cut and paste the codes for bilingual columns from the new user guide, or use Someone's TribExt (which reminds me, I should download it...).

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Tue Nov 13th, 2007 at 11:29:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
It's more likely that Sarkozy was thinking of big players like the US (which would suggest  a nationalistic independence when it comes to France's economic interests, despite the new pals act with the US recently) and China, cf.:

Brussels decries US protectionism

By Wolfgang Proissl and Fidelius Schmid in Brussels and Daniel Dombey in London

Published: June 20 2006

A rising tide of protectionism could endanger European investment in the US, the president of the European Commission said ahead of a European Union-US summit in Vienna on Wednesday.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0922cbc0-0075-11db-8078-0000779e2340.html


Minister warns against US protectionism
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-03-14

Commerce Minister Bo Xilai on Monday fired a warning at lawmakers in the US seeking to impose protectionist measures against Chinese goods, calling them "destructive" to "healthy bilateral trade relations".

The moves, he said at a press conference during the annual parliamentary session, "run completely against WTO (World Trade Organization) principles".

Referring to a proposal by some US lawmakers to raise tariffs on Chinese imports by 27.5 percent, he said: "If the Bill goes ahead, it could damage the currently sound Sino-US trade and will be disastrous to both Chinese and American businesses, which have benefited from each other.

"If this policy is adopted, it is not only protectionism, but also trade hegemonism."

Last month, the US announced a trade deficit of $232.5 billion with China last year - its largest imbalance ever recorded with a single trading partner.

Washington has since increased pressure on Beijing to let the yuan rise faster, saying that its current currency regime makes Chinese goods more affordable than those from elsewhere.

The US had also lodged a complaint against China at the WTO last month, alleging that the world's fourth-largest economy unfairly subsidises industries such as steel, wood products and information technology, making these already competitively priced goods cheaper still.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-03/14/content_826963.htm



Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
by Ted Welch (tedwelch-at-mac-dot-com) on Tue Nov 13th, 2007 at 11:29:56 AM EST
We'll always have the USA to join us into making it a religion.

The EU does do anti-dumping, by the way. Quite aggressively.

See DG Trade - Respecting the Rules

That Europe would 'defend its farmers' is a myth, of course. The EU subsidies for farming are a form of industrial policy to support mass production by large farms, same as it is in the USA. Well, about 80% of the subsidies are, anyway. I would welcome a policy that is really aimed at defending the livelihood of individual farmers. But that would be a completely different policy.

by nanne (zwaerdenmaecker@gmail.com) on Tue Nov 13th, 2007 at 11:39:29 AM EST
I wouldn't worry much about agriculture anymore.

The energy crisis will push food prices upwards because of the food-fuel link and this will boost farmer income, making quotas, tariffs and dumping irrelevant.

Every last African farmer will be needed to fuel our SUV's. </snark>

Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.

by Starvid on Tue Nov 13th, 2007 at 11:47:33 AM EST


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