Social dumping

Expression for the lower salaries, social costs and standards that allow certain countries produce cheaper products and to attract investors.

The idea behind minimum social legislation and the social chapter is to maintain competition but at a higher level of social protection. An argument against this is that levels of social protection that are too high and associated higher costs may lead firms to move production out of the EU, for example, from Portugal to Turkey, or even to very cheap labour countries like China.

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