One of the headline aims for the London Summit on 2 April is to put the world on track for sustainable growth. Central to this aim will be reiterating the importance of open markets to the economic recovery (a point made by the Prime Minister in his address to Congress last week) and addressing the threat of protectionism.
The communique from the G20 Summit in Washington contained useful standstill language on protectionist measures, with leaders agreeing to 'refrain from raising new barriers to investment or to trade in goods and services, imposing new export restrictions, or implementing WTO inconsistent measures to stimulate exports.' Most G20 countries have kept to the spirit of the pledge. Uri Dadush at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has this week made a number of policy recommendations for trade at the coming Summit.
There has been some interesting debate about what constitutes protectionism, as this voxeu piece looking at 'murky protectionism' highlights. Many governments have taken necessary and unprecedented domestic action to stimulate their economies. However the impact of this patchwork of bailouts and stimulus packages on international trade flows is not always clear. There is a clear onus on governments to bear in mind the dangers of behind-the-border protectionism.
The London Summit will be looking for a recommitment to keep away from the edge of the protectionist abyss and to ensure that effective monitoring mechanisms are put in place. For a thought-provoking piece on the role that the US Administration could play on trade at the London Summit, see this article in the Wall Street Journal.
For those in Washington, Dominick Chilcott, Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy, will be speaking at a roundtable hosted by the German Marshall Fund at 12.30 on Friday 13th March on the topic of 'The London Summit and the Fight against Protectionism'. Please contact Mark Allegrini on mallegrini@gmfus.org if you would like to attend - though beware that space is limited.
Posted at 11:10 12 March 2009 by Oliver Griffiths | Comments[0]
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