Slip-sliding summitry
If regional summits over the past day or so are any guide, the prospects of an effective commitment from the G20, next month, prohibiting protection are weak. At the ASEAN summit in Thailand this week:
"…Asean leaders made a stand against protectionism, [but] defended their own buy-local campaigns, saying those conform with trade rules, and are similar to the ”Buy American” clause in the $787bn US stimulus package." Extract from Financial Times
The actual 'standstill' statement from the ASEAN press release is as brief and as general as it is possible to be: "They agreed to stand firm against protectionism and to refrain from introducing and raising new barriers."
The concurrent EU summit in Brussels was equally vague about maintaining open markets. The Secretary General of EuroChambers (an organization representing Chambers of Commerce across Europe, including non-EU countries) was skeptical:
"Declarations that protectionist measures have not been taken so far and that competition rules will be respected must be followed by evidence: specific sectoral bailouts [for banks, motor vehicles] certainly don’t go in the right direction." Extract from Leader-Post (Canada)
Posted on 03/02 at 03:56 PM.
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