Will we see the return of trade barriers?

In 1929 one of the biggest factors was the introduction of nationalistic trade barriers. These were protective measures to ensure domestic businesses were supported over and above those of the global economy. The effects were disastrous both domestically and worldwide!

It was only through the creation of financial instruments in the USA that were able to bypass legal obstructions and international trade began to flow and then flourish, eventually pulling the world out of depression into a more enlightened world. Of course we had a world war, which had a mighty impact on the global economic balance and lifted the USA into a dominant financial and industrial power. As the world begun to recover from the war, it was the abolition of trading barriers that had a profound impact on producing the world we see today.

There have been many booms and busts along the way but a graph of the global evolution of financial markets shows a trend upwards. Different governments worldwide have either been able to take advantage of developments in industry and technology or create services. For example the fifties was a golden age for British Industry, dominating many markets with technology for domestic appliances, cars, bikes, ships and aircraft to name but a few. The sixties and seventies showed a different picture as the USA, Japan and Germany all skipped passed the UK by producing higher quality products, at a cheaper price. C'est la vie! The UK moved towards a service industry culture leaving the new industrial heavyweight countries to their own devices.

Today we see another shift materialising in the global economy with China and India becoming huge forces and causing a rebalancing. A greater social concience in the East is creating demand within massive populations that are far greater than those in the West and there are the beginnings of a switch of the flow of trade away from the West into a more equal balance.

The issues that the global economy faces will not be served by introducing trade barriers! It did not work in 1929 and it won't work now. The long term solution is to open up trade still further to encourage world markets to a new co-operative process that brings mutual benefits. May be there should be more global regulations but only as a guide, as the free market works best when it finds its own level.

To agree and liaise to find reciprocal arrangements are basic skills in trade and these should be allowed to be developed on a worldwide scale. All countries need to trade on a far greater scale and find new markets. The trading patterns established over generations now need to be changed.

This will be an enormous revolutionary undertaking if the world is going to take charge of the rebuilding of the economy. Financial markets of a short time ago are already becoming obsolete and in their place, new markets will need to be created to fulfil the needs of a totally changed world order.

We need to give to get and then barter the price to the advantage of all, rather then the needs of the few and especially not be nationalistic. The strength of the European Union is only as good as the sum of its parts and the worrying nationalistic stance of some member states following the Irish bid to protect their banks and their customers is a concern and could bring into question the existing EU single market concept.

If the Irish and Greek positions are repeated across all EU states we might see the fragmentation of the EU and heaven forbid the introduction of trading obstacles.