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Old Wine in New Bottles – How Protectionism Takes Hold of Digital Trade
Author(s) -
Marel Erik
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
global policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.602
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1758-5899
pISSN - 1758-5880
DOI - 10.1111/1758-5899.12737
Subject(s) - protectionism , economics , international economics , productivity , international trade , cripple , industrialisation , business , market economy , economic growth , linguistics , philosophy
This commentary argues that digital restrictions are spreading across many parts of the world, holding back prospective productivity gains from trade. Barriers to digital trade have the same effect as standard barriers to trade in goods – they protect incumbent firms at the expense of consumers. Just like tariffs on cars or semi‐conductors slowed down the diffusion of new technologies in previous spurts of innovation, digital protectionism will cripple countries in our current wave of Industrialization.