WTO warns on rise of protectionist measures by G20 economies

Article source
Financial Times

The surge in antitrade rhetoric around the world is being accompanied by a rise in the introduction of protectionist measures by the world’s leading economies, the World Trade Organisation has warned.

The WTO said in a report released on Tuesday that between mid-October of last year and mid-May of 2016 G20 economies had introduced new protectionist trade measures at the fastest pace seen since the 2008 financial crisis, rolling out the equivalent of five each week.

That trend coincided with a slowdown in global trade now in its fifth year. Moreover, it was contributing to the persistent slow growth in the global economy, the WTO said, and the fact it was coinciding with an increase in protectionist political rhetoric around the world ought to be worrying.

“At this point in time what we don’t need is the slamming of the door on trade. Quite the contrary, we need to get trade going,” Roberto Azevêdo, the WTO’s director-general, told the Financial Times in an interview.

G20 leaders pledged in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis not to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s and erect the sort of trade barriers that are now widely believed to have contributed to making the Great Depression worse.

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