Conclusions: Protectionism Revealed

The preceding chapters identified some important influences on per capita import levels, and they provided some indications of the extent of protectionist practices in various countries. All the analyses were comparative ones, since the measures used were derived relative to other states. Per capita imports for the individual countries were above or below predicted levels when compared to the other similar nations in the data sets. While all of the industrialized countries were undoubtedly more open in 1994 than in 1960, since there had been extensive global liberalization and world trade had expanded significantly, some countries were clearly still more open than others. If protection had provided advantages, and there is at least the possibility that a country can benefit from imposing protection, especially if no one else utilizes protectionist practices,1 then the comparative openness of countries in terms of national import patterns continues to be important. The knowledge of the relative openness of markets will be relevant to understanding the trade and economic policies as well as the international economic activities of various countries. The analyses and the results that they generated indicated that this comparative approach to the idea of revealed openness or protection was indeed useful, and the import levels for different states were put into an appropriate perspective as a consequence. Comparisons over time also provided insights into changes that were taking place in individual countries, changes among the countries, and changes in different product categories.