WHATEVER THE QUESTION, CAP IS ALWAYS THE ANSWER: – Johan Norberg
Say what you like about the French and their agricultural protectionism, but they are consistent. In 2003, the French agricultural minister Herve Gaymard defended the CAP by saying that poor countries should not concentrate on large-scale farming and export markets:
“…food cannot be left to the mercy of market forces”
Today we have a food crisis because poor countries have not been able to develop large-scale farming and export markets, partly because of the CAP. But obviously, the French agricultural minister Michel Barnier explains that the probem is too much markets and too little protectionism.
“What we are now witnessing in the world is the consequence of too much free-market liberalism”