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The Empire's New Clothes
When global trade rules change, how much time should the E.U. need to prepare? World Trade Organization members had 10 years to ready themselves for the Jan. 1 lifting of quotas on textile and clothing imports. So why is Brussels still jittery? Showing off its caring side, the E.U. fears a surge in Chinese imports could hurt textile suppliers in small countries like Bangladesh and Mauritius, which rely heavily on exports. With China's share of the world's $400 billion clothing and textile export

INDICATORS Trading Places A takeover battle may be planned for the London Stock Exchange. Following a $2.6 billion offer from Germany's Deutsche Börse — which the LSE rejected — the transnational Euronext exchange was reported to be considering making a bid. Monopoly Pricing Just in time for holiday gift buying, a British appeals tribunal upheld a ruling made by regulators against two retailers fined for fixing prices in conjunction with the toy firm Hasbro. The regulators say their earlier decision lowered the price of the board game Monopoly by about $8 a set. One retailer, Argos, said it might roll the dice and file a further appeal.

market expected to soar, Bangladesh alone could lose a million textile jobs, warns John McGhie of Britain-based Christian Aid.

But there's also concern for producers closer to home. The E.U. took in around 20% of global textile and clothing imports in 2002. With China already the bloc's biggest supplier, the end of quotas "will have serious consequences for the European industry," says Bill Lakin, director-general of European trade body Euratex. Brussels could yet trigger safeguards should Chinese imports explode. You can be sure it won't need 10 years to do so.

The Schroders' Pet Project
With German unemployment approaching 11%, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder understands the need to protect jobs. But he could hardly have expected the howls that greeted the news that his fourth wife Doris Schröder-Köpf had helped German drugstore chain Rossmann develop a range of dog accessories — from shampoos to fake bones — to be marketed with the help of the couple's dog, Holly. A share of the revenues will go to charity.

So what's the problem? Klaus Ochsner, president of Germany's pet-trade industry body, the ZZF, suggested that most of the goods are made not by Germans but by low-wage, Far East producers. "The Chancellor's wife ... is insulting the pet industry and endangering German jobs," he told industry title Tier Bild. Rossmann claimed that while the products come from all over, "an exact specification is not possible." If Schröder can't find a better line than that, he may end up in the doghouse.

Holiday Hookups
A rash of late-year megamergers struck the U.S., including health-care firm Johnson & Johnson's $25.4 billion takeover of Guidant; the long-awaited $10.3 billion Oracle-PeopleSoft marriage; phone provider Sprint's $35 billion merger with Nextel; and the uniting of software companies Symantec and Veritas in an all-stock deal worth around $12.5 billion.

The Bottom Line
	That is indeed a lot, that is indeed hefty
		RAINER HERTRICH, co-CEO of Airbus parent company EADS, acknowledging the €1.45 billion cost overrun in the development of the Toulouse-based planemaker's A380 superjumbo jet