Remember the pledge to avoid protectionist measures signed by the G-20 leaders back in November? If you didn’t, President Sarkozy’s op-ed in the Washington Post last week was a good reminder. He wrote:
In November, we agreed on four principles that would guide our response: enhanced coordination and cooperation; the rejection of protectionist measures; the strengthening of regulatory systems in financial markets; and a new global governance.
As we know, these guys are dead serious about implementing more regulations and about destroying financial privacy. However, their promise to reject protectionist measures is just a sham.
Check out this short paper, “Trade Protection: Incipient but Worrisome Trends,” by World Bank’s Elisa Gamberoni and Richard Newfarmer. They write:
For this reason, G-20 leaders signed a pledge on November 15, 2008, to avoid protectionist measures. However, since then, several countries, including 17 of the G-20, have implemented 47 measures whose effect is to restrict trade at the expense of other countries.
Read the whole thing here and weep.
Thank you to Sallie James at the Cato Institute for the tip.