Protectionism may increase a country's trade deficit, according to a report released by the European Central Bank on Wednesday. It came just days after finance chiefs of the world's top 20 economies dropped a pledge for free trade.
The study also denied US claims that countries running big current account surpluses may be using unfair trade practices. Instead, it argued that countries will view their competitive edge as temporary, behaving with caution as they expect others to liberalize trade to improve their own efficiency and restore competitiveness.