Economic Crisis and Protectionism Policies: the Case of the EU Countries

The crisis in the US mortgage market that started on the last quarter of 2007 has produced a long term crisis in the EU real economy, resulting in the bankrupt of many companies and banks, high levels of unemployment and public debt, and a general decline in GDP. In this framework, many EU countries have adopted a number of protective measures against non-EU third parties with the aim to hinder the negative effects of the crisis by supporting their national economies. Overall, the number of protectionist measures adopted by EU countries amounts approximately to 700 since 2008 and include importation and exportation quotas and tariff along with new protectionist strategies, like invisible trade obstacles and stand by credits by governments to strategic sectors. This paper reviews the protectionist policies (in foreign trade, in finance and capital market in monetary market, in labor market) adopted in the EU focusing, in particular, on some relevant examples from UK, Germany, France, and Italy. On the whole, such protectionist measures seem not to represent an effective way to deal with the ongoing crisis and could originate a risky rebound effect over other economies as already happened during the 1929 Great Depression.