Should the UK government also move to protectionism?
As the number of countries around the world being accused of installing protectionism into their economies continues to grow there are calls for the UK government to defend the domestic workforce and UK taxpayers. While the EU as a whole is looking to press charges against the American government with regard to "buy American" clauses installed into various rescue packages, individually there are signs that many EU members are also looking down the route of protecting their own markets.
While officially the UK government is very much in line with EU counterparts, behind-the-scenes it looks as though the UK government is taking a very different tack to individual countries. The support of the unions in relation to these wildcat strikes currently hitting the UK has put the government on a collision course with its main source of finance. There are calls this evening from MPs in the Labour Party for the government to sit down and discuss the issues with the unions with the aim of the levelling the employment playing field in the UK to protect the UK workforce.
Even though such a move would be against EU regulations, there appears to be little sign of the EU administration taking action against individual member countries looking to protect their own economies. The issue of protectionism is very difficult because if one party is firmly in favour of this then others will surely follow to protect their own interests.
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