COMPETITION POLICY

by Altiero Spinelli

SUMMARY: The European Parliament discusses a report prepared by the Committee on External Relations on the problems created by competitive practices and dumping.

On this occasion too, Spinelli considers relations between Europe and the developing countries, which he dealt with more fully in his speech on 14 February 1978. In "Speeches in European Parliament, 1976-1986", Pier Virgilio Dastoli Editor. (EP, 11 and 12 April 1978)

Mr President, on behalf of the majority of my group I shall briefly give the reasons why we shall be voting in favour of Lord Brimelow's report and Amendment No 1 tabled by Mr Albers.

It is clear that, to the extent that dumping practices are shown to exist, use has to be made of instruments enabling them to be controlled. But it has to be said that the existence of a case of dumping is extremely difficult to prove because the word dumping is often used simply when a foreign competitor sells at prices lower than those prevailing on our internal markets so that, in such cases, the anti-dumping standards would not be applicable.

When I was in the Commission I heard talk of the need for anti-dumping measures for years but, in the final outcome, only one general and clear enough case of dumping was found, and that related to the sale of some Japanese ships. Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to apply anti-dumping measures in cases of this kind because the goods concerned pass the whole of their lives outside any customs controls.

However this may be, whenever dumping practices are found to exist countermeasures have to be taken. In the same way, when what is called 'uncontrolled in competition' is proven, ' other words when there are sudden disruptions of market equilibrium, similar measures need to be taken to those for textiles so that any necessary adjustments may be made gradually and progressively.

For these reasons I find Lord Brimelow's detailed explanatory statement fight. I would add that, as pointed out by Lord Brimelow and others, since ours is an open economy the presence of keen competition is inevitable. If we want to help in the development of the poorest and most backward countries we have to allow them into our markets in sectors in which, previously, they had not been involved and we have to remember that, at the start, they will have the advantage of a lower standard of living and therefore of lower wages. If they could have our wage levels they would probably be delighted but if we were to insist that they had our level of earnings then probably we would be sentencing them to unemployment. We should therefore bear in mind the need for change particularly since it is in our interests that the undeveloped countries should develop. We should also guard against declaring ourselves in favour of the development of a country and then, as soon as it begins to produce for itself, shutting the doo

r in its face and preventing it from selling on our markets. We cannot reason in this way, we must bear in mind that our economy requires far-reaching changes.

For me, the real cause for concern lies not so much in the fact that there are cases of competition in new helds and for new products but in the fact that this competition is arising in a time of depression because, in actual fact, no-one would worry about the fate of the zip fastener industry if the closing of a zip fastener works was followed by the opening of another factory. Our real concern lies in the fact that the closing of one works is not followed by the opening of another.

We should be very careful about the hidden protectionism that the Liberal Member was talking about. We should not accept measures of disguised protectionism, we must find general answers and get the economy going again because then, in a situation of recovery all these adjustments that are so difficult today would become easy. And implicit in economic recovery, as I had occasion to recall in another speech, there must also, and above all, be the vigorous development of the non-industrialized countries because it is only if they develop that we shall be able to find new markets, enabling our economies to live and breathe.

For these reasons we approve this motion for a resolution, urging the Commission to follow the problem carefully and to use these instruments with intelligence and without falling into a mood of protectionist paranoia. But we must realize that the measures proposed do not constitute any major answer to the real problem at the root of the crisis we are now in. The fundamental answer lies elsewhere.