The onset of the financial crisis inSeptember 2008 and the subsequent 'Great TradeCollapse' (Baldwin 2009), many countries actively usedtrade policy instruments as part of their response to theglobal recession. Governments pursued a mix of tradeliberalization, trade promotion, and trade restrictions. Thechoice of trade policy has varied, with limited use oftariff hikes or antidumping and safeguard actions.Sector-specific support to industries dominated initialresponses to the crisis, and there has been increasingresort to nontariff measures. Recent research suggests thatvertical specialization the growth in global supply chainshas played a significant role in limiting the use oftraditional protectionist instruments. Pressures ongovernments to support domestic economic activity mayincrease, given current gloomy economic prospects and morebinding macroeconomic policy constraints, and the number ofprotectionist measures has recently risen. Open trade cannotbe taken for granted, thus the need for monitoring persists.
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