Protectionism mounting despite G20 pledge: report

Source: Reuters

Major trading powers are continuing to impose protectionist measures in defiance of a promise by G20 leaders to keep markets open, according to a report by independent economists.

The report, by Global Trade Alert (GTA), to be issued later this week to coincide with the G20 summit in Toronto, finds that such policies in 2009 turned out much worse than was known at the time of the Pittsburgh summit last September.

"The costs of the ineffectual G20 pledges mount quarter by quarter," Simon Evenett, an economics professor at St. Gallen University in Switzerland and coordinator of GTA, said.

...

The policies, covering $1.6 trillion or more than 10 percent of world imports, include measures such as China's export tax rebates and U.S. "Buy American" provisions in its stimulus package.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65K2GX20100621

Because of this, Germany is a NET exporter.

it has the same protections as any other European country - no tariffs on products from other European countries and limited tariffs on imports from non-EU countries. EU countries have more free trade and less tariffs than the US does. Germany's imports are a higher percentage of its economy than imports are in the US, Germany just exports much more than we do.

In this situation, there is fair competition. On the other hand, there is no way in which first world workers can compete with third world workers who are paid pennies a day.

A better balance of trade might be a stimulatory force, but all countries cannot achieve a better balance of trade at once: that's a zero-sum game.