Case Study 3.2: Don’t dump on us!
i. What responsibilities should governments have when they examine and then accept
tenders for goods and services?
The government should be looking at where the goods and services are coming from. If the good or service is coming from an Australian source it would help the Australian economy but if it was just imported from another country because it was cheaper it would be putting Australian businesses in jeopardy .
ii. Is a shared tender the ethical position to take?
In some cases having a shared tender would be ethical. If a company was unable to deliver on time then they could just use the other supplier to meet there needs. In the case that both suppliers were able to meet the companies needs they should always take from the local supplier first.
iii. Was it ethical of the local distributor of the EU company to quote price differences in
their advertising brochure?
From the local distributer of the EU companies point of view it would have been ethical as it would be a way of trying to convince them to change suppliers to them as they would save 25%.
iv. Discuss what you think the ruling should have been.
If the products had been found to be of equal quality then the Australian and New Zealand governments should have ruled in favour of their local markets. Not supporting their local markets can cause barriers in creating new markets for products if they can see they are not going to be profitable if the product is supplied from overseas.