英国政府不应拘泥于意识形态教条
The decision by Tata’s board to sell off its British steel business is a nightmare for the UK government. The Conservatives are ideologically hostile to industrial intervention, as the business secretary Sajid Javid has made clear. The priority that George Osborne, the chancellor, accords to deficit reduction places severe constraints on spending. Yet the likelihood is that without substantial intervention and spending, basic steelmaking will disappear from the UK.
对英国政府来说，塔塔(Tata)董事会出售旗下英国钢铁业务的决定是个噩梦。就如商业大臣萨吉德•贾伟德(Sajid Javid)已经清楚表明的，保守党在意识形态上反对行业干预。财相乔治•奥斯本(George Osborne)将削减赤字作为优先事项，这使支出严重受限。然而如果没有实质性的干预和支出，基础钢铁制造可能会从英国消失。
The steel crisis has two interacting causes. There is a long-term problem of competitiveness. British steelmaking operates in old industrial sites, and although Tata invested in a major new blast furnace at Port Talbot , its UK operations are not as productive as, for example, its Dutch plant, let alone the competitor operations in the Far East. British unions have been co-operative and the UK plants produce high quality steel, but that has not been enough to cancel out the effects of neglected investment by state and private owners.
英国钢铁危机有两个相互作用的原因。竞争力不足是一个长期问题。英国的钢铁制造业都位于老工业基地，尽管塔塔在塔尔伯特港(Port Talbot)投资了一个大型新高炉，但其在英国的钢铁业务不如其他地方，比如其荷兰钢铁厂生产率高，更不必说塔塔在远东地区的竞争对手的钢铁厂。英国的工会一直很合作，英国的钢铁厂生产的钢铁质量很高，但这些还不足以抵消政府和私营业主忽视对该行业进行投资的影响。
To add to the competitiveness problem, governments have allowed relatively high energy costs to accumulate. In the coalition government, I worked with Conservative ministers to obtain state aid approval for compensation payments to energy-intensive industries. The process was time-consuming, but we secured agreement and payments are now being made.
使竞争力问题雪上加霜的是，政府没有阻止相对高昂的能源成本逐渐增加。在联合政府中，我曾与保守党的部长们一起努力，力争获得欧盟(EU)批准，发放国家补贴，向能源密集型行业支付补偿金。这个过程非常耗时，但我们获得了同意，现在支付已经开始。
The steel industry also suffered from Britain’s relatively open economy and an industrial culture that disdains long-term relationships. The industrial strategy adopted by the coalition was beginning to have an impact, but I now sense a lack of commitment.
钢铁业也因为英国相对开放的经济和轻视长期关系的行业文化而受到困扰。英国上一届联合政府采用的行业策略已经开始产生效果，但我现在感觉还欠缺决心。
These long-term structural factors were significant, but were being addressed. The new factor has been the global glut of steel caused by the slowdown in the Chinese economy and China’s switch away from investment to consumption. The collapse in steel prices has made profitable plants marginal and marginal plants unviable. The first casualty last year was the SSI plant in Redcar. Over the past 12 months, the losses have piled up at Tata Steel, too.
这些长期结构性问题非常突出，但已经在应对中。新问题是中国经济放缓以及中国从依赖投资向依赖消费转型所导致的全球钢铁过剩。钢价暴跌让原本有利润的钢厂只能勉强过活，让原本勉强过活的钢厂无法继续经营。去年第一个倒下的是泰国伟成发钢铁工业(SSI)在英格兰雷德卡(Redcar)的工厂。过去12个月中，塔塔钢铁的亏损也逐渐升高。
This global problem is often described as “dumping” by China. The Chinese steel industry is certainly selling many products at marginal cost and the opaque accounting of its semi-nationalised companies means that losses can be hidden and carried in a way that is not the case for western (or, in this case, Indian) groups. The US has taken aggressive anti-dumping action with very high tariffs and the EU has adopted more modest levies. One mystery is why the British government opposed US-style action in the case of Tata.
这个全球性问题常常被说成是中国“倾销”。中国的钢铁行业确实以边际成本卖出了很多产品，其半国有化企业不透明的账目也意味着，亏损可能以一种不同于西方企业（或是本例中的印度企业）的方式被隐藏和承担。美国采取了较为激进的反倾销举措，实施极高的关税，而欧盟的征税则更加温和。令人费解的一个问题是，英国政府为何反对在塔塔的问题上采用美国式举措。
The decision to sell by Tata Steel is a desperate throw. A year ago it had adopted a strategy of consolidating its basic steel production in Port Talbot and selling the less profitable long products business. There was not much interest then, other than from asset-strippers and subsidy-hunters. The position now is worse.
卖出塔塔钢铁(Tata Steel)的决定是绝望之下的无奈之举。一年前，塔塔采用了整合其在塔尔伯特港(Port Talbot)的基本钢产能、卖出利润较低的长材业务的策略。当时除了资产倒卖者和补贴寻求者，有兴趣的买家不多。现在形势就更糟了。
What can be done? Tata has other assets in the UK, notably Jaguar Land Rover, and will not want to spoil its reputation as a responsible long-term investor. So it will almost certainly manage its sale carefully, and the government has a crucial role in easing this process. It is possible that a temporary period of public ownership may be necessary as part of the transition, and ideological dogma must not get in the way.
能做什么？塔塔在英国还有其他资产，尤其是捷豹路虎(Jaguar Land Rover)。塔塔大概不会想要损害其作为负责任的长期投资者的声誉。因此塔塔几乎必定会谨慎处理出售塔塔钢铁英国公司的事宜，在保证这一过程的平稳进行方面，政府可以扮演关键性的角色。在过渡过程中，可能有必要暂时将其收归国有，意识形态教条不应成为阻碍。
Whether or not a buyer can be found, the crisis is going to prove expensive for the Treasury. Closure, if it happened, would not only be painful, but would come with a hefty price tag for retraining and community support. The Treasury should perhaps reflect that its foot-dragging over compensation payments and refusal to contemplate business rate reform for industry may eventually cost the taxpayer far more — another penny-wise, pound-foolish feature of the chancellor’s deficit-reduction plan.
不管能否找到买家，事实都将证明这场危机对英国财政部而言代价高昂。该厂关闭（如果这种情况发生的话）不仅将造成痛苦局面，在再培训和社区支持方面还将带来高昂的成本。英国财政部或许应该反思，拖延补偿支付和拒绝考虑行业营业税改革的做法，可能最终会让纳税人付出更高的代价——这是财相的赤字削减计划又一个因小失大的地方。