Drinks boss 'free trade is vital'

by DrinkNetwork

Published on Mon Feb 16 20:41:38 2009

It's easy to hear the clamour for protectionism. When jobs are going workers protest loudly, and so they've done in countries as diverse as Latvia, Chile, Greece, Bulgaria and Iceland.

There have been strikes in Britain and France. A now-softened "Buy American" clause in the American stimulus package prompted the official Chinese news agency to call protectionism "just the poison that worsens global economic hardships".

Politicians are worried that the clamour will be impossible to resist as unemployment rises towards the G8 meeting of the world's eight main industrial countries later this year.

Protectionist fears

Companies are quietly worried, particularly big global companies that sell internationally and which draw on every corner of the planet for their raw materials.

There aren't many companies more international than the world's largest drinks company, Diageo, which makes Guinness and a string of other beers and well-known drinks such as Smirnoff. It employs 22,000 people in 80 countries and sells in 180 markets.

The countries and continents where it distils and brews and manufactures are many and varied but include Britain, Ireland, the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Africa, Latin America, India and the Caribbean - in short, everywhere that drink is drunk.

Diageo's chief executive, Paul Walsh, explains why he is against protectionist trade barriers.

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