Résumé
Labour cost gaps between developed and emerging countries justify in political discourses in France the implementation of policy measures such as tariff barriers, social VAT, and/or the inclusion of Social Clause in the WTO to protect developed economies against allegedly "dumped" imports from developing countries. We examine each of these policy measures to show that their contribution to tackling the wage gap issue between rich and poor countries would be marginal and much below politicians claims and opinion expectations.