If that is the level at which the debate between the protectionists in Brussels and the protectionists in Washington is going to be conducted, we can give up all hope of freer trade and resign ourselves to a debilitating tariff war of the kind that all too often in the past has ended up in a shooting war: according to an item put out by Prodigy Services Co, the European Commission, in attempting to rebut allegations of favouritism toward European firms in public procurement, alleged that Northern Telecom Ltd was the biggest foreign bid winner of US telephone switch orders, and suggested that the firm is 50%-owned by AT&T Co; Northern Telecom is in fact 52%-owned by BCE Inc, the former Bell Canada Ltd, and we’ve never heard any suggestion that BCE is a closet US company.
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