Let them eat cake

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: if they got it all, they would still be out of pocket.

Such findings undermine the arguments of those battling to preserve the worst idiocies of the CAP. France and Germany are demanding that foreign competitors must apply EU rules on hygiene, animal welfare and labour laws, or face high import tariffs. Defenders of this “community preference” claim to be working for consumers. But that is unconvincing. If food were genuinely unfit for consumption, it should be banned, not taxed at the point of entry to make it expensive.

This is a fight about globalisation, says Sweden’s farm minister, Eskil Erlandsson. Demanding food safety from foreign rivals is fair enough, he says, as is objecting if they use child labour. But if Europeans want to produce food in a special region or way, “let them label it, and see if the market will pay for it.” If it does not, EU governments should not impose their own high-cost model on the rest of the world. If they insist, they will have created Marie-Antoinette protection: “Let them export cake.” She had her head cut off, to the cheers of the sans-culottes. Something for European farm ministers to ponder.