Brussels, 18/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Rather than reduce trade barriers, as they are supposed to do given their commitments made at the G20, the EU's main trading partners over a one-year period introduced 131 new protectionist measures, in addition to the 333 restrictive measures brought in at the beginniong of the 2008 crisis and still in force end 2010, of which only 40 were discarded in 2011.
In his most recent annual report on trade barriers, partly unveiled this week by the commissioner for trade Karel De Gucht (EUROPE 10476) and published on Wednesday 19 October, the European Commission underlined the fact that the EU's main trading partners (including G20 economies) had introduced 131 new restrictive measures since October 2010, which constituted a rise of 30%. The report therefore ntoes no fewer th an 424 protectionist measures taken since Octrober 2008, still or henceforth in force today. Also, the economic recovery in 2011 has not encouraged the EU's main trading partners to abandon the measures adopted between 2008 and 2010, given that only 17% of them, 76 measures, have become obsolete since 2009. Finally, the European Commission points out that several G20 member countries are pushing through protectionist industrial policies based on the substitution of imports, local content demands and restrictions to public market access. In developing countries, many of these measures were originally temporarily but have become permanent and have become an integral part of national industrial plans
Trade barriers can range from import and export restrictions in the form of higher import or export duties or lower export quotas applied at the border of a country, to so-called "behind-the-border" measures, such as technical barriers to trade in the form of conformity assessment and certification requirements which are applied in a stricter way on imported goods or which go beyond international practices and requirements. As well as measures introduced by G20 countries other than the EU (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, South Korea, US, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Japan, Russia and Turkey), the report also highlights measures taken by Algeria, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine and Vietnam.
In a press release, De Gucht deplored the fact that, “protectionism poses a real threat to the economic recovery. I am concerned to see that the overall picture has not improved and that more trade restrictive measures have been introduced by our trading partners”. On the eve of the G 20 summit in Cannes at the beginning of November, the European Commissioner promises that, “the EU will therefore, in bilateral and multilateral talks, continue to remind its partners to stick to their commitment to reduce trade barriers”. (EH/transl.fl)