Covid19 / USA and China, protection wins against protectionism
The scarcity of certain products these days, such as personal protective equipment, has been accentuated by the lack of cooperation between countries and protectionism, explains Gianmarco Ottaviano, Fondazione Achille e Giulia Boroli Chair in European studies. "A notable exception has been China, whose export has decreased, but less than that of other products. This is good news because in 2018 the US and the EU received half of foreign supplies of these devices from China". However, the decrease in Chinese exports of masks and other devices decreased more to the US than to the EU. Is this a consequence of Trump's policy? "Yes and no. No, because there is no evidence of voluntary restrictions from China; yes, because they ended up in the cauldron of Chinese goods on which Trump imposed duties. Having noticed this, in the last few days he has removed them, realizing that what people need now is protection and not protectionism.