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Should Microsoft Be Excluded From EU Government Sales?
David Gerard writes "From Groklaw: Heidi Rühle, a Green Party MEP, has presented a question regarding whether or not Microsoft should be considered as having failed to fulfill the conditions to participate in public procurement procedures in Europe, as laid out in Article 93(b) and (c) of Financial Regulation — '(b) they have been convicted of an offense concerning their professional conduct by a judgment which has the force of res judicata; (c) they have been guilty of grave professional misconduct proven by any means which the contracting authority can justify' — and the Commission anti-trust penalty just happens to fulfill both of those conditions." The EU Commission is required to respond within 6 weeks to such a question from a member of Parliament.
How are they going to sue them in the future if they don't buy the stuff now? They can't tax their citizens anymore, who's going to fund the EU otherwise?
Regardless of the merits of the proposed EU exclusion of Microsoft sales, I can guarantee that the moment the EU said that Microsoft was barred, the US Congress would immediately find a way to scuttle the proposed USAF purchase of tankers from Airbus, no matter how good they are.
It's an election year, and trade is an enormously demagogued subject in America right now, and, with Presidential candidates even, stupidly, throwing a good trade partnership with Canada up for review, there's no doubt that Europeans would fair well.
Paradoxically, the best hope for Europeans, Canadians, and transatlantic sanity, would in fact be a Republican victory. You Europeans may not like the tone of we Republicans, but it is under us that trillions of dollars in trade flows freely across North America and across the Atlantic between our two parts of the world. I mean, you might like Obama better, but when you start losing jobs in Ottawa, Paris, London and Berlin because of a foolish trade war, then, would you at least miss Bush for his stance on free trade?
This is my sig.
The U.S. is being voted out as relevant to the global economy
Hey, how are those new Airbus gas guzzlers selling? Hmmm, do you have -any- orders yet?
Just checking.
There's plenty of Europeans that want to sell to the USA and if your company doesn't want to do it, there are ten companies from around the world willing to takes it place.
As you crow about how Europe does not need the USA, do not forget, that there is not a single that Europe does that America actually needs. Every technology and cultural item Europe can export to the USA is more than matched by technology and culture that Asia can export.
If you ask any American kid who makes the hot car, they will say Honda, Toyota, GM (Camaro), Ford (Mustang), and they won't even think about Europe. If you ask any American kid who has the best food, they will probably say the Mexico or China. If you ask any American kid who has the best movies, it will probably be America, but you'll also hear a lot about Japanese Anime. Who has the best singing, you might hear about Africa....
Do you notice a pattern here?
Americans are a world wide people, and have been choosing the best from around the world and even when it is at their own perceived expense. Europeans are about Europe first, but Americans live in a world economy, and you Europeans are so stuck on yourselves, you haven't even noticed that everyone thinks all of your stuff sucks. At least we Americans know it about ours, and that is why the USA will succeed while Europe will ultimately fail.
This is my sig.
This is the same Bush who imposed crippling tariffs on European steel firms to protect American firms?
Yeah, that was considered a mistake even in Republican circles, and the thing is, it wasn't the cutoff of American exports to Europe that drove Bush to change his mind - it was that it turned out that there were more consumers of imported steel in the state PA (where steel is an issue), then there were producers, so he went with what benefited the most workers, and that was free trade.
But that's a limited sanction and its a far, far cry from withdrawing from NAFTA, or saying no to free trade with Latin America, or not expanding trade with Europe, all of which Bush is pretty consistently on the opposite of.
This is my sig.