More than 7,000 protectionist measures since financial crisis, says study

© Igor Dolgov

It may be tempting to think of the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election as the popular backlash against globalisation, but the reality appears to be that nation states have been steadily pushing against trade liberalisation since the onset of the financial crisis eight years ago, according to Reuters. And the worst offenders over this period? Step forward the hypocritical trade representatives of the EU and US, which have each adopted over 1,000 different trade barriers. India came next with around 400.  In fact, during the same time, just three – Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia – of the 60 largest economies in the world have actually reduced tariffs and other barriers