Protection and Employment

The history of the world economy has, during the past three decades or so, experienced two interesting developments. On the one hand, there has been a tremendous drive for international economic integration. Indeed, there are more schemes under that heading than could reasonably be discussed in a single large book (see El-Agraa, 1982c; 1988b). On the other hand, there has been a revival of protectionism — see Page (1979) for a global empirical assessment. Page, who tried to estimate the changes in non-tariff distortions of trade barriers between the period prior to 1974 and after, reached the conclusion that: about 40% of trade by all market economies was controlled before 1974; this has risen to just under a half [see Table 17.1]. Most trade in non-manufactures was already managed in 1974; the rise since then has been small. In manufactures, however, the share has risen from 13% to almost a quarter. For imports by the [European Community] EC countries, the changes are from 36% to 45% for all goods, and from virtually nothing to 16% for manufactures.… For all goods, the share of trade controlled by the European countries is slightly lower than the average for the world, but the increase since 1974 has been greater. (Page, 1979, p. 28)