Faced with increased levels of international competition and mounting budget deficits some developed, Western economies have responded by introducing trade restrictions. This book uses a comparative analysis of eight leading industrial nations (including Japan, the United States, West Germany and Britain) to demonstrate that such policies are mistaken. Alternatives to trade restrictions, including subsidies for industries and labour-market policy instruments are also shown to have their drawbacks, and the book emphasises the need for countries to find and exploit policies which fulfil their own political and social needs but which are least injurious to their trading partners.

The last 20 years have seen a transformation in the level and nature of international trade. Oil price shocks, world-wide recessions and the globalization of capital markets have made the conditions of international trading increasingly volatile. Some of the most pressing problems for the developed economies of the West have been caused by the impact of imports from the emergent Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs), particularly where these have been concentrated in established and important sectors of the economy. The strain upon the global trading system which has been apparent in recent years is evidenced in the growth of the "new protectionism" - the adaptation of trade restrictions by some of the world's leading trading nations. This book argues that these are mistaken. Based on a comparative study of eight leading industrial powers, including Japan, the US, West Germany and Britain, it concludes that the policies adopted are economically inefficient and do not fulfil the ends for which they were designed. Instead the authors argue that countries need to try and develop the policies which are least injurious to their trading partners. Retaliatory protectionism is mutually da