介绍： Helping the losers: To the losers, the scraps
How not to cope with globalisation
From The Economist 20161029

Audio:

0:00




THERE is an odd inconsistency in the government’s approach to economics. On the one hand, ministers constantly fret about the effect of free movement of labour on Britons’ jobs an...

介绍： Helping the losers: To the losers, the scraps
How not to cope with globalisation
From The Economist 20161029

Audio:

0:00




THERE is an odd inconsistency in the government’s approach to economics. On the one hand, ministers constantly fret about the effect of free movement of labour on Britons’ jobs and wages, and have pledged tighter controls on immigration when Britain leaves the EU. On the other hand, the government takes a gung-ho approach to free trade, promising lots of post-Brexit deals with countries whose export industries might threaten British jobs and wages in much the same way. Whereas competition from foreign workers bothers politicians a great deal, the adverse effects of competition from foreign companies seem not to worry them.

Perhaps it should. A body of research shows that, rather like free migration, free trade has big overall benefits but creates some losers. Most governments take steps to compensate them. America’s Trade Adjustment Assistance programme, with a budget of roughly $1bn a year, funds training for those who are made redundant because of free trade and compensates some for lost wages. The EU has a Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which does something similar.


Britain is about twice as exposed to foreign trade as America. Yet its specific programmes to help the losers from import competition are much more modest. Britain is eligible (for now) to tap the EU’s fund, but has never done so. Instead, the government insists that its own scheme—the Rapid Response Service (RRS)—is up to the job. The RRS is supposed to provide training and support when there are mass redundancies.

Oddly, no figures are published about its budget or its operations. So The Economist made a freedom-of-information request and found that last year the RSS’s budget was just £2.5m ($3.1m), less than 1% of the value of the American fund, which is itself hardly generous. Unless the government gets better at helping the losers from free trade, anti-trade sentiment may one day rival the hysteria over foreign workers.


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