The former antitrust commissioner, Dror Strom, was a guest on the new economic podcast of "Israel Today" hosted by Sonya Gorodisky and explained what the government should do to lower the prices of the products in the supermarket.
"It's so simple that if it wasn't sad, it would be possible to smile. The government should make us normal, enact a law that allows free imports - anyone who wants to import from any reformed country in the West will be able to import under the same conditions, without anyone's exclusivity. The agreements should be taken out These exclusivities. Not the import reform which has dozens of pages with exceptions, without all this turmoil. A free import law with five simple sections. That way we will get many importers - not one, not two who control the entire market, but 20 importers, 30 importers, and every time If someone tries to raise the price of Gillette, another importer will come, that's how a free market works," Strom explained.
He also said: "I expect to see it already in the platforms of the parties who understand that 40% of the people who are interested in these elections, what they are interested in is the cost of living above all."
Strom addressed calls for a consumer boycott by the Histadrut following the wave of price increases and said: "What's the problem with boycotts? The smart people who sit in these monopolies, the exclusive importers, say - then we'll wait two, three months. Surely then there will be some other crisis and then we'll come with our list of price increases and not They will talk about it because the public outrage will be elsewhere. The problem is that it is not a permanent solution."
According to Strom, "We have monopolies in the food sector. Not one monopoly that controls one product, but mega-monopolies. Tnuva, for example, in addition to dairy products, also has Tivol - which is a monopoly in itself in soy products, many people buy these things. The same Talk about a barn - that's where the backlog is. Many times the people don't connect, but each such group holds a large number of monopolies that together they strangle the market in this sense the market because they make up 90% of the products. Then we go around and move between one monopoly and another. What What needs to be done is simply to break up these monopolies."
To the question of who should break up monopolies, Strom replied: "The Competition Authority has an investigation department, it has people who are lawyers who know how to sue and have sued monopolies and cartels in the past and put people in jail. They know how to work. The problem is that in the last decade the Authority has adopted a very liberal policy that is very suitable for large markets Like America and Europe, which have many competitors, but it is not suitable for such a centralized country, like Israel. This sleeping beauty needs to wake up from its sleep after 10 years in which they did not declare any new monopoly and did not act in a way against the large groups in the economy, and there really needs to be a high gear More".
Strom also referred to the economic plan presented yesterday by opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu: "From a first glance at Netanyahu's plan, it can be said that it is worrying.
In economics you can't give out candy without prices.
If you give out candy, promise to lower prices, you need to explain how.
If you lower taxes, it means that there will be a shortage somewhere in the state's revenues, and we will not be able to finance services that we do need.
There is no wonder here that you can come with him."
Ström is convinced that we are on the verge of a social protest: "It's rising now mainly on the networks, where you don't have to leave the house to the tent, to sweat. I think we're ahead. Because the situation is closing in on households from all directions, housing has become unbearable, people today can't even to help their children buy an apartment, we don't have affordable housing, land prices are exorbitant because the biggest government monopoly of all, Rami, doesn't release enough land and 70% of the apartment is land.
"In the short term, food prices are going up, infrastructure prices and other prices are going up. I mean, for the first time, we have a combination of many factors here, and it's not just that the marketing chains are on the consumer's side this time," he said.
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