The tendency to impose trade-restricting measures remains strong among the EU's commercial partners, fuelling continuing uncertainty in the world economy, said the European Commission's in its annual report on protectionism published here Monday.
At the same time, only 12 pre-existing trade barriers have been removed. This means that hundreds of protectionist measures adopted since the beginning of the economic downturn continue to hamper world trade, despite the G20 commitment.
"I regret to see that many countries still consider protectionism a valid policy tool. This goes clearly against the G20's commitment to abstain from imposing trade restrictions and to remove existing ones," commented Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU Trade Commissioner.
The tendency to restrict participation of foreign companies in public tenders remains strong, in particular in the United States, noted the report.
The 11th Report on potentially trade-restrictive measures focuses on the period between 1 June 2013 and 30 June 2014 and covers 31 of EU's main trading partners: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Ecuador, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, USA, and Vietnam.
The G20 Summit held on 15 and 16 November in Brisbane reaffirmed that the fight against protectionism was a core commitment of the G20.