The Extent and Consequences of the New Protectionism

Abstract

In this chapter we shall endeavour to gain some indication of the extent to which non-tariff barriers affect international exchange. This is a somewhat challenging prospect for one very good reason, namely that the essence of the new protectionism is that many of the instruments employed are ‘hidden’ barriers. As we saw in Chapter 7, a desire to avoid formal recourse to Article XIX influenced the decision of a number of countries to negotiate voluntary export restraints, or to give production subsidies. By their very nature, it is difficult to gauge the proliferation of such interventions accurately, let alone their economic effects.