Protectionism vs Globalization

José Antonio Martínez Serrano, Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Valencia, argues in this article published by FUNCAS, how the reindustrialization proposals of certain medical and health products, motivated by the shortage during the covid-19 pandemic, can lead to an increase in protectionism and economic isolationism, which would further exacerbate the economic consequences of this crisis.

• In his opinion, an example of what should not be done was the prohibition or limitation of exports of personal protective equipment, masks and other items, taken by more than seventy countries (including the US and the EU) last April, in an attempt to supply their own national markets and avoid an escalation in prices. This measure, in addition to limiting the speed of world response to a global crisis, generated a lack of solidarity and broke the market unity in the European Union.
  
  
• The author maintains that looking forward international trade will have to be facilitated, promoting international cooperation and ending the trade war between the US and China: “Breaking the rules that have governed international trade so far and its replacement by an international trade managed between two of the great international powers can have very damaging effects globally ”.
  
  
• For this purpose, it is essential to strengthen the World Trade Organization, to ensure a more efficient international trade architecture, which restores a trade order that is an essential instrument for prosperity, economic stability and world peace.