Ｐｒｏｔｅｃｔｉｏｎｉｓｍ，Ｆｕｔｉｌｅ ｔｏ Ｃｒｉｓｉｓ

With a deepening economiccrisis and rising calls forpublic assistance in sec-tors ranging from financeto autos，there are also signs of growingnervousness about the dangers of protec-tionism.The real worry is excessive useof antidumping，countervailing duty，andsafeguard protection，misguided publicsubsidies，rising protection in the poorestcountries，and temptation in the US Con-gress to violate existing treaty commit-ments.In order to shift the burden of thecrisis on to trading partners to the highestpossible extent，the trading powers of boththe 1930s and the 1980s relied on the in-strument of protectionism and thus on thewalling-off of their own markets.Thesetrends can also be discerned in the currentfinancial crisis.