Trade Protectionism in International Business

Trade Protectionism in International Business
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Trade Protectionism in International Business
Trade protectionism refers to the deliberate actions taken by the government to regulate imports and sometimes promote exports by setting up trade barriers such as tariffs (Li & Whalley, 2021). Countries resort to trade protectionism to safeguard their own interests in the global markets. While many people oppose protectionism in favor of free trade, it is still a common practice in the global trade markets. The United States, China, and India are some of the highly populated countries that used trade protectionism policies to protect domestic industries. The government imposes trade barriers such as import tariffs to discourage imports to protect infant or struggling domestic industries. These barriers discourage foreign investors from exporting goods to countries with protectionism policies. As a result, the citizens in those countries are forced to purchase goods from the local manufacturers because there are no substitutes. As a result, the local industries increase their sales, make profits, and develop under a favorable environment. However, trade protectionism is not always a good thing. Some economists argue that trade protectionism harms the people it is meant to help.
To illustrate the issue of trade protectionism, I chose images that explain how countries impose protectionism policies. In the first illustration in appendix A, former US President Trump is building a wall to prevent international traders from doing business with the US. In this illustration, President Trump has already built the wall, and he is adding more layers, meaning that he is making the situation worse. The illustration employs the imagery of tennis players. The player on one side represents the global traders since the player has a head with a global map. The other player is the United States.