Avrupa Birliğinde yeni korumacı eğilim

Protectionism is as old as the history of trade. Even during the most liberal periods protectionist tendencies continued not only in the form of conventional measures such as customs duties, but also as non-tariff barriers. Recently a new rise in protectionist tendencies at global scale is referred to as "New Protectionism". This new wave of protectionism is characterized by both differentiation of tools, practices etc. which restrict the foreign trade, and by rise in their number. To further complicate this scene, a considerable amount of protectionist practices is referred to as "invisible". Invisible protectionist tools are made up in order to bypass the global trade liberalization measures set by GATT/WTO. Besides, the most recent political conflicts contributed to this new wave of protectionism. The main purpose of this study is to question what is "new" in the recent rise of protectionism, with particular focus on the EU's foreign trade. The case of EU as the champion of trade liberalization at regional level, draws particular attention as it seems to shift towards protectionism. This trend in EU's foreign trade especially gained momentum with two major milestones, namely 2008-2009 global crisis and the so-called "Trade Wars". This latter, although seems to take place principally between the US and China, has deeply affected EU's foreign trade policies and the free trade ideology. The study focuses on the EU's protectionist practices with particular reference to the rise in non-tariff barriers from 2009 onwards. The analysis is based on a literature review and data data analysis. The literature review is based on in English- and Turkish-language sources. Most of the data on non-tariff barriers applied by the EU are taken from Global Trade Alert and UNCTAD. Besides, details of practices such as anti-dumping and countervailing measures are based on the annual reports issued by the European Commission. Departing from the relevant data, analyses are done on the basis of mostly-used protectionist measures, mostly-protected sectors, mostly-affected countries by EU's new protectionism etc. Upon this analysis, it is concluded that contrary to its founding principles shaped by free trade, EU has been shifting towards an ever more protectionist position, especially throughout the las decade.