Protectionism growing in several G20 countries. - The International Chamber Of Commerce is concerned about protectionist reactions from certain G20 countries in an effort to confront the economic crisis. These measures could seriously undermine the slow recovery in the global jobs market and have a negative impact on trade. According to the conclusions of a report it had requested from the Peterson Institute for International Economics from Washington, G20 countries between January and September 2009 took 172 protectionist measures. In total, more than 1,000 governmental measures have been adopted, which could have an impact on foreign trade interests, underlined one expert. According to this expert, 554 measures are directly discriminatory and 337 out of the total are measures that came directly from G20 governments (more than 60%). This expert is concerned that this phenomenon could get more pronounced, with several hundred additional measures currently being developed and on the point of being adopted. According to the report, the Russian Federation is the most protectionist of G20 countries, followed by the US, India, Argentina, Brazil and China. The least protectionist countries are Mexico, Turkey, Australia, South Korea, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. The main trade discrimination measures in force since September 2009 include company rescues and public aid (30%). These are followed by trade defence measures (antidumping, compensatory duties, etc) (19%), followed by tariff measures (13%), public procurement (5%), export taxes and other restrictions (5%), measures on immigration (4%), export subsidies (3%) and import restrictions (3%). In conclusion, the report puts forward four initiatives to prevent any danger of economic depression: (1) conclusion of the Doha round; (2) appointment of a group of “trade wise men” at the G20 in charge of fighting protectionism; (3) speeding up the process of settling trade disputes at the World Trade Organisation; and (4) regularly holding summits between G20 trade ministers. (I.L./transl.fl)