The Revival of Protectionism in the Modern World: Case Study of Uzbekistan

Since the publication of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, in which market-based economy free from government interventions was systematically defended, economics and philosophy have mostly parted ways, culminating in a clear distinction between how most economists and philosophers view the global economic order. Although it is now clear that trade liberalization, unlike protectionism, paves the way for economic development, many still argue that the countries are better off implementing protectionist measures. Even the developed countries today seem to slowly return protectionist policies, while the developing ones commonly employ them fully. In this research work, the author will analyze the recent trends in trade policymaking as well as conduct a case study of Uzbekistan to see what impact the decades of protectionism and recent trade-liberalization reforms made on the country’s economic growth. The aim of the work is to identify and reveal the features of new protectionism in the context of globalization of the world economy and the related contradictions and to provide recommendations for Uzbek authorities based on the empirical findings. There is a very limited number of researches made in the field of trade policy in Uzbekistan, therefore this work will contribute to both Uzbekistan and global scientific societies, as the case study can be used to improve the current situation in the country, as well as it can be applied to the countries of a similar economic background (precisely present at the same geographic region) for the same purposes. The hypothesis proposed for this research is: When the country implements high protectionist measures it faces lack of money inflow, which consequently leads to a slow-down in economic growth.