Brussels, 06/06/2012 (Agence Europe) - The EU has expressed concern at a sharp rise in protectionism throughout the world, particularly within the G20, as illustrated by the introduction of 123 new restrictions on trade since September 2011, bringing the total number of restrictive measures in place to 534.
In its ninth report on restrictive measures to trade adopted by third countries, the Commission laments the fact that its G20 partners have not reduced the number of barriers to trade set in place since the beginning of the crisis. Commissioner Karel De Gucht even says that he is “very worried by the recent sharp increase in the number of restrictive measures in the space of just a few months”. This trend highlights the failure of the G20 economies to observe their commitments to resist protectionism.
According to the report, which lists the measures taken by the 31 main trade partners of the EU, within the G20 (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, South Korea, the United States, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia and Turkey) and outside it (Algeria, Belarus, Egypt, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, the Philippines, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Ukraine and Vietnam), more than 15 new measures were implemented on average every month between September 2011 and the end of April, compared to fewer than 12 per year previously. In total, 123 new restrictive trade measures have been set in place over the last eight months. Furthermore, the dismantling of measures has slowed down, as within the G20, just 13 measures were repealed between September 2011 and the end of April, compared to 40 over the same period one year previously. Overall, just 17% of the measures (or 89 measures) have so far been removed or have expired since the crisis began in October 2008.
The report also notes that despite an increasing economic weight and a growing role, the emerging nations remain the ones which make most use of restrictive measures, often in the framework of their national industrialisation plans. The Commission also stresses that restrictions on foreign investment, such as Argentina's expropriation from the Spanish oil company Repsol of the national company YPF, reduce the predictability of the economic environment and adversely affect the confidence of European operators to invest in third countries. Calling on the countries of the G20 to honour their commitment to free trade, the Commission gives particularly poor marks to Russia, which most frequently uses restrictive measures unlikely to comply with its obligations as a future member of the WTO. (EH/transl.fl)