Borders and Protectionism: US Trade Policy and Its Impact on law, Economy and International Trade

Between 2008 and 2018 the major world economies have significantly increased protectionist measures and the most significant impulse is due to the new policy of the USA. We are witnessing a formal and substantial override of WTO rules and, more generally, the perception is conveyed that the WTO rules do not bind the United States and that there is a recovery of sovereignty on these issues. From the economic point of view, the article focus on the short-run effects of the tariffs: spikes in consumer as well as producer prices and higher profit margins for domestic producers. The washing machine industry provides a flavour of the costs that consumers have to pay in order to finance a new job in the protected industry. Economists compute a cost on US consumers of about USD 1.5 billion, i.e. about USD 820000 per additional job.