The French Exception

Europeans reacted furiously to President George W. Bush's decision to slap up to 30% tariffs on imported steel, claiming the move flies in the face of the Administration's admonitions to other countries to get with the free trade program. But European countries are far from blameless when it comes to liberalizing their own economies.

Fresh evidence of this came last week when, as European Union officials excoriated the U.S., the French government balked at opening its household electricity market to foreign competition. French officials in Brussels cited the recent California energy crisis and the Enron scandal as evidence of the...