Hi Baxx. You are quite right when you say that it is not clear cut, but then again nor are many rules on trade. The EU knows all to well how hard it is to negotiate on trading conditions. It is their bread and butter.

However, the main sticking point is not the complexity of evaluating how much of a product needs to have been made in the EU for it to be labelled as such. The main reason this is not being done is that a few countries outrightly abuse their respective ‘Made in’ labels to the obvious detriment of the others. It is a labelling Wild West. Here are some countries that prove that proper labelling can be done: Canada and Australia.

http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/03169.html

I quote:

‘The new Guidelines introduce a distinction between “Product of Canada” and “Made in Canada” claims. “Product of Canada” claims will be subject to a higher threshold of Canadian content (98%), while “Made in Canada” claims will remain subject to a 51% threshold of Canadian content but should be accompanied by a qualifying statement indicating that the product contains imported content. In both cases, the last substantial transformation of the product must have occurred in Canada’.

http://www.australianmade.com.au/why-buy-australian-made/about-the-logo/

Just for the record I agree with your last paragraph.

Does he pay their national insurance contributions, or are they employed bil-prekarjat?

When is Peppi going to have the Chinese slave workers on Xarabank to tell us their story and to make a collection for them?

Kif tista’ ma tidhaqx.

Kif tista’ ma tibkix.

Issa tara ! And if he does it will all be blamed on the previous government .

Till now

Because the “Made in the EU” label is open to all sorts of interpretations, albona.

Let’s say you buy a tablet that made in the EU. Really made in the EU. But that tablet contains thousands of electronic components. Does that mean each of them was made in the EU?

Or you buy a pair of shoes that’s made in the EU. Where was the leather made? And the thread?

It’s not as clear-cut as it seems.

Of course I agree with you. If it were up to me I’d build a tariff barrier that would slow Chinese imports to a trickle. But then liberals and capitalist CEOs alike would accuse me of being a Nazi who wants to starve the poor Chinese. The former because they believe free trade brings freedom (it doesn’t) and the latter because they’d have to knock a couple of digits off their massive paycheques.

However, anyone who buy clothes from most high street shops should hang their heads in shame. Just because it was made in China or Bangladesh does not make you somehow any less guilty than the slave drivers. After all it is you that is funding this business.

Those who fly those luxury Middle-Eastern carriers should know that places like the UAE and Qatar are massive slave centres. Ever wondered why flights are so cheap?

Then there are the governments that are complicit in all of this – all for profit.

The EU and several pressure groups have been trying to establish a Made in EU label for years now but it is always the same countries that oppose it. The largest two being the UK and Germany, two countries that abuse their own national ‘Made in’ labels when 99% of the product carrying the label is actually made in workhouses in Asia.

My point being, know what you are buying — as far as that is possible — and stick to the brands you are fairly certain do not abuse their workers. For a number of years now I have been trying to buy products of durable quality rather than buying poor quality items in quantity.

Ultimately it is the people who bring about change – bottom up, not top down. Governments go as low as the people allow them to.

Oh I’m fully aware Daphne. It’s not me that this needs to be pointed out to, but all the high level government/police officials who allow this horrible behaviour here and in every other western country the chinese ‘invest’ in.