There is the European Free Trade Association of non-EU members. There are the North American Free Trade Area and the Closer Economic Relations between Australia and New Zealand. Among the developing regions, there are Mercosur in South America and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa that is emerging. The South Asia Association f or Regional Cooperation and the South Pacific Forum are planning to start their own regional free-trade arrangement by 2001. In this light, a retreat into protectionism as a response to the crisis and in the face of globalization does not make much sense.
Protectionism is a dead-end street.
It will only make the country that resorts to it fall farther and farther behind its neighbors. There may be specific cases of a genuine threat of real injury to an enterprise, and not just a fear of competition from cheaper and better products. Their marketing programs must encompass the whole region and not just a narrow protected market. Internally, management has to be more professional. With the support of governments, the skills of management and of the work force have to be upgraded to levels required by the industries of today and of the future.