The Garlic Smugglers

It seems almost incredible that someone has just been sentenced to jail for smuggling…garlic.  Who would have thought that such a crime existed in the 21st century?  And the poor guy’s sentence is an unbelievable six years.  That’s about what you get for manslaughter and three times the sentence for grievous bodily harm.
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The miscreant was caught importing garlic from China disguised as ginger. 

The reason this non-crime exists is not due to any health reasons, but that the EU subsidises garlic growers in Spain and has imposed a 9.5% tariff plus an impost of €120 euros per kilo on any imports.  The effectively shuts out all non-EU imports.  There are two consequences of this policy, apart from the ludicrously unfair penalties on transgressors.  The first is that the price we pay for garlic is about double what it would be if there was free trade.  As garlic is such a small part of our spend on food, this is too small for most people to notice.  But the second consequence is much more serious.  It means that we are denying the right of all third world garlic growers to sell their goods to us.They are much poorer than they should be as a result.  Of course, garlic isn’t the only food stuff which is penalised in this way. Most food for which EU farmers receive a subsidy is also subject to import duty.  The Economist, with characteristic understatement, described this policy as “evil”.  Just how evil, can be seen from the conflict which has recently broken out in Mali, which has involved Europe in another unnecessary war.  The staple crop in Mali is cotton, but their cotton growers are shut out from the European and US markets, leaving them in abject poverty. We should be doing everything in our power to help countries like Mali become prosperous in the only way that works in the long run, which is through trade. Instead we throw money at our already prosperous farmers and trade with the third world in machine guns.