Additionally the emphasis on "inefficient" local producers over more efficient ones further away may be damaging.

"Right is right and wrong is wrong," he said, and "import prices are crazy and will take out not just inefficient producers."

"You end up with a price based on the costs of the most inefficient producer rather than the lowest-cost producer."

When an inefficient producer sends the merchandise it produces best to a country able to produce it more efficiently, both countries benefit.

That's because the business cycle's lungs need to exhale from time to time, blowing out the inefficient producers and the foolhardy investors.

By allowing large quantities of cheaper imports, they could force inefficient domestic producers and distributors to tighten costs and lower retail prices.

A fixed price above cost has proved a lifesaver to more than one inefficient producer.

The inefficient producers would be able to sell the quotas and thereby reap some of the value of the quotas.

The EU countries' inefficient producers gain nothing.

Abroad, Argentina's image is of a country unable to compete globally and intent on protecting its inefficient local producers.