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Article: Coming home. (cooperation with other European countries) (A Survey of Portugal: Another New World)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- May 28, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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THE main benefit for Portugal in joining Europe is not the structural funds, or access to a market of 320m consumers, but the sheer impetus to make long overdue changes at home," says a foreign diplomat. Being competitively communautaire will put the squeeze mainly on agriculture, with spillover effects into other parts of the economy. Farms will shed jobs which industry (probably job-shedding itself) and services like tourism will have to pick up. To expand, businesses need not just better management and marketing, but more and cheaper capital. The financial system must adapt, and is adapting, to provide that capital when the flow of Brussels money slackens. Inevitably, ...