Trade Protectionism And Worldwide Economic Contraction Case Study

Trade Protectionism And Worldwide Economic Contraction - Case Study Example Economic protectionist laws are struck down on the basis that the state has not used a more equitable means of achieving its goal. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate economic protectionism, explain the rationale for governments implementing protectionist policies and evaluate whether these policies were successful or otherwise. For example, when the purpose of a law is to shield Alaska’s infant timber processing industry from the effects of interstate and foreign competition, it is deemed as invalid. Similarly, a state’s labeling law in the apple growing industry would be considered to be economic protectionist if it were meant to prevent apple growers in other states from selling their fruits in the former state. Thus, where economic protectionism is a law’s ultimate goal, the measure can be held to be unfounded. However, if the apple growing state argues that requiring the use of a specific grade is a reasonable method to protect cons umers against fraud and deception, the court would most likely accept this argument (May & Ides 350). On the other hand, economic protectionism is also considered to be damaging if it is merely a means, a stepping-stone, or an intermediate goal towards the attainment of a legitimate end. For example, â€Å"a genuine quarantine law that bans the importation of diseased crops or animals is not economic protectionism if it was adopted for health reasons† (May & Ides 352) even though it has the incidental effect of shielding local sellers from competition from other states. Although quarantine laws are not invalid in themselves, they may be invalidated if they fail to meet one of the other requirements of the dominant Commerce Clause analysis. The Argument Against Economic Protectionism Support for continued trade liberalization may be declining, as the results from recent polls and political rhetoric suggest.