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A Snapshot of contemporary protectionism: How important are the murkier forms of trade discrimination?

This paper provides a snapshot of current protectionist dynamics making extensive use of the GTA database. Two methods of estimating the trade covered by crisis-era protectionism are also examined. Although the method used in recent WTO report may use a more appropriate level of tariff line disaggregation for some discriminatory measures, overall, it is argued that GTA's estimates provide a better estimate of the amount of global commerce affected by global era protectionism. This paper also confirms the contemporary importance of “murky” protectionism. The overview of the crisis-era protectionist landscape shows that in each quarter of the past 18 months more than half of discriminatory measures are not tariffs or trade defense measures and tend to fall under weaker or no WTO rules. The harm inflicted by and the discrimination against the AsiaPacific region is rather similar to global tendencies; although tariff-related measures are slightly more prevalent in this region. For the jurisdiction harmed by the greatest number of foreign discriminatory measures, China, it is shown that at least 10 percent of its exports are harmed and more than 50 percent of which are affected by “murky” forms of protectionism, notably, local content requirements and bailouts...

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