SUDDENLY, as the end of duty-free shopping in Europe comes nearer to reality - in a little over a year - last ditch moves are made today to keep it.

Yet it was as long ago as 1991 that finance ministers of the EU states all agreed to scrap it.

And, after all, the duty free system inside the European single market, now fully up and running and with the euro's launch imminent, is an anachronism.

It is not only an anomaly in a border-free market, but also a distortion of the concept of free competition.

But how seriously must be taken the warnings that the cost of travel will rocket and thousands of jobs will be lost if airports and ferry companies lose the billions of pounds in revenue they currently draw from duty-free sales?

Their campaign to keep their shops, backed by the German and Irish governments, is probably exaggerating the ill-effects. The "cheaper" travel that duty-free sales subsidise is, in any case, paid for by passengers with their purchases of tax-exempt goods.

But the ending of duty-free sales does not necessarily entail the closure of the airport and ferry shops.

Indeed, with their captive custom - and do not the generally high non-duty free prices at airports and on ferries suggest that this is already exploited? - the airports and ships have every reason to keep them open.

And if the single market works as it should under open competition, the downward pressure on prices - for instance, of the kind car manufacturers are now coming under over their higher prices in Britain - could make "real" shopping just as much a bargain for travellers as duty-free ever was.

Indeed, many tourists are already realising this and are importing far greater amounts of goods bought in ordinary shops abroad in the EU than they are allowed to bring in duty-free.

It is, of course, a traditionally popular "perk" enjoyed by millions of tourists, but its disappearance in Europe may, with the competitive benefits of the single market, be something that is lamented only briefly by most travellers.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.