Is Protectionism Justified

IF a common man is questioned “can protectionism ever be justified” he’d probably say NO, we live in a world of globalisation and there won’t be many who agree with the term protectionism is today’s day, its mostly considered as an “economic bad” . You will easily find governments who say ‘I am in favor of globalisation’ but rarely will u ever find a nation which says “we are for protectionism” and that’s probably the most basic difference between the two.

Let’s start with understanding protectionism before we debate if it’s even justifiable or not? Protectionism may be defined as (Block,W. and McGee,R.W. 1997) “any policy that is intended to shield domestic industries from import competition (Dolan and Lindsey, 1994, p. 826)” Protectionism is merely an attempt by a countries government to restrict trade in goods and services with other countries. It’s based on a notion that imports are detrimental to an economy and its citizens. Protectionism intends to protect Domestic Industries and increase in labour wages, increase domestic production and help to solve the balance of trade issues that many countries face. (Davies,S. october 2011) Moreover, the forms that protectionism take vary considerably. Some of the most commonly used measures of protectionism are as follows:

and Ringe,W-G. (2010) “The overwhelming majority of developed economies are in principle against protectionism and yet we can all see that it exists” Lets den try and understand the reasons, causes, when and why would protectionism be justified? (Lambsdorff,O.G summer 2007) “Yes, protectionism is a promising tool for domestic producers to safeguard their margins”? Wong,Y.Y and Chan,P.S 1993) “The influx not only represents a loss of domestic finished product market, but also a loss of a large number of jobs. In response to the crisis, the USA repeatedly implemented protective measures.” Here we can see how both Sir Lambsdorff and Sir Wong, tell us the most basic and the most and common reason behind protectionism, is that countries will adopt protectionist measures during economic crises to increase demand for domestically produced goods, to protect the jobs of their citizens. Any nation worried that their own industries will suffer because of imports, will resort to protectionism to protect themselves. They will subsidise their industries, to help increase the export, there by securing jobs, industries and solving the balance of payment