A regulatory policy disaster

Michael Hüther, director of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, writes in Handelsblatt newspaper that the new foreign trade act is a "regulatory policy disaster. ... Responsible policy must recognise the potential for danger. With its blurred legal terminology, the new ammendment to the foreign trade act could just as well facilitate deliberate abuse as generally broad interpretation. Inner security and public order are trite concepts which anyone will agree to. They are wide open to interpretation, and can be used to arbitrarily make any sector or company the focus of public concern. They are fear-induced concepts which put authority into the hands of politicians. This is the especially alarming thing about this amendment, quite apart from the many arguments against giving the state the right to intervene on capital investments by foreign investors."

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