Global Trade Alert
GTA16: The Global Trade Disorder
Based on a 50% expansion in the coverage of the Global Trade Alert database since last year's G20 summit in St. Petersburg, this report provides the most comprehensive assessment to date of the resort to protectionism and liberalisation worldwide and by the G20 group of nations. The principal findings are:
� There have been three phases of crisis-era protectionism: a surge in 2008 and 2009, a fall in the rate of new measures imposed as the prospects for the global economy brightened in 2010 and 2011, and then acceleration once the slowdown in global growth became apparent in 2012 and beyond.
� Worldwide resort to protectionism in 2013 exceeded that imposed in 2009, the year when many G20 leaders expressed fears for the openness of the world trading system.
� As far as the G20�s imposition of new protectionist measures is concerned, it jumped in 2009, never fell back to 2008 levels and has ratcheted up over time, reaching nearly 500 new protectionist measures imposed in 2012 alone.
� Since the St. Petersburg summit, the G20 nations have implemented 457 protectionist measures, amounting on average to one harmful act every 23 hours.
� Since the crisis began, Chinese commercial interests have been harmed by foreign protectionism on average every 29 hours. Every 18.5 hours a protectionist measure is taken somewhere in the world that harms the G20�s exporters, investors, and workers. The protectionist clock is ticking.
� The WTO�s reports on protectionism substantially underestimate the G20�s resort to trade barriers. On the cleanest like-for-like comparison, Global Trade Alert finds 44% more instances of G20 protectionism.
