CLAUDE ESTIER
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made in one of the ten European countries but somewhere else
arrive in France by way of the Common Market. Imported from,
say, Korea into West Germany, they arrive in France duty-free as
products of West Germany. So the Common Market has become a
kind of sieve through which all sorts of products flow into France
and compete with French industry. We have tried to rectify this,
not only by protectionism, but by trying to stop or slow down the
imports , for instance, by having the customs inspection of
magnetoscopes in Poitiers . In every industrialized country there
are protectionist measures much stronger than those of France .
West Germany, for example, has twelve thousand different
standards applying to imported products; Great Britain has a
sanitary code that is so strict, so rigorous, that it prohibits the
import of many products. In the United States, some duties on
agricultural imports are claimed to only regulate spoilage .
Our problem is not to close ourselves up within our borders ,
but to create conditions for a new industrial dynamic. This is
essential if we want to whip the French economy into action. But
the problem-to answer the last part of your first question-is
that the measures we are taking can be effective only at the end of
a year, two years, three years. Therefore we are in a somewhat
difficult situation. Much of public opinion is hostile to these
reforms. This permits the opposition on the Right to campaign
against us .
In addition, the Left came to power after twenty-three years
of the Right being in power-a very different situation from that
in other democratic countries .
It
was almost a true revolution .
The people expected considerable changes. Although things were
done for the elderly, the handicapped, the young, etc ., others
could not be done because we are in the midst of an international
crisis, and because of high costs. So people whose hopes were high
are a bit disappointed .
Kurzweil:
Yes . Similar difficulties, of course , exist in America or
elsewhere. Still, some of the declarations, and some of the steps
your government has taken-whether in the area of economics or
of politics-may be perceived as anti-American. Do you see the
thrust toward French independence as being greater than in the
past, as an increase of the proverbial French chauvinism? Or are
there greater differences since the election of President Reagan?
Estier:
I believe we must separate the two questions. That is to say,
