Brussels, 17/06/2011 (Agence Europe) - In a report covering 180 countries to be published on 21 June, the WTO flags up a sharp increase in barriers to free trade between October 2010 and April 2011. This is a trend of which the world's largest economies, the G20, were part with their raising of new export and import barriers over the last six months. Yet these same economies pledged, in the wake of the global financial crisis, to resist all forms of protectionism. Restrictions, in the form of quotas or export taxes, which relate as much to Indian cotton as to Chinese minerals, “are not without risk”, the WTO warns. Under current WTO rules, export restrictions may be imposed on the grounds of environmental or social concerns (to ensure food security on the national market, for example) but some governments have been tempted to abuse the rules to bring about a rise in the prices of their exports, according to world trade's governing body. The WTO also criticises the increased use of non-conventional import barriers, in the form of more customs red tape or hygiene and health requirements. (E.H./transl.rt)