Positioned against protectionism
A top European Union (EU) official rejected a return to protectionist trade policies to shelter struggling European companies during tough economic times, calling instead for increased economic cooperation with the United States and a more open global economy. “We cannot bring back from the grave the policy of picking winners that European countries embraced,” Joaquín Almunia, European Commission vice president and commissioner for competition, said Thursday during a Harvard talk. “I have to reject these calls for relaxed enforcement of competition policies. This does not mean Europe does not need an industrial policy. The question is what kind of industrial policy. We embrace a modern industrial policy and reject the old-style policy from the 1970s.” Almunia was at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies as part of the center’s Director’s Seminar series. He was introduced by Grzegorz Ekiert, the center’s director and a professor of government. Almunia, who completed the Senior...