Final Word from Wednesday, February 17, 2016
About 100 Czech steelworkers and managers protested in Brussels on Mon. against awarding Market Economy Status to the Chinese. It's a serious issue with potentially civilizational implications for the West, but hardly anyone in the CR paid any attention. And why should they? The steelworkers argue that thousands of jobs are at stake because of imports of cheap Chinese steel at dumping prices, but in the short term this means lower prices for almost everyone else on all kinds of finished goods made from steel. Why should we be on the side of steelworkers now? Where were they when China was accepted into the World Trade Organization 15 years ago? Or when the yuan was included in the IMF's basket of Special Drawing Rights? Or when Bohuslav Sobotka agreed in writing to support Chinese interests within the EU? Western businesses cry foul with regard to China only when their own commercial interests are at stake. [Czech Republic International Monetary Fund SDR WTO]
Glossary of difficult words
Market Economy Status - a status within the World Trade Organization granting greater protection in the event of anti-dumping procedures;
dumping - the export of a product to another country at a price either below the price charged in the home market or below the cost of production;
finished goods - final products; materials or products which have received the final increments of value through manufacturing or processing operations;
to cry foul - to protest strongly about a real or imagined wrong or injustice.