LONDON — The European Union imposed 89 new trade barriers in 2009 and rounded off the year by prolonging tariffs on shoes from China and Vietnam, originally due to expire in 2008. The EU needs to understand that trade barriers limit growth and economic recovery — as well as harming its own companies and consumers.
The new barriers, listed by the independent Global Trade Alert, include specific duties such as a 58.9 percent "antidumping" duty on iron or steel fittings from Thailand, even higher than China's 58.6 percent.
Most barriers concerned products from any country. These self-destructive responses to the recession are in addition to the long-standing, massive Common Agricultural Policy, which subsidizes inefficiency and blocks cheaper imports.