Currency Tensions Boost Protectionism Risk, WTO, OECD Tell G-20

Tensions over exchange rates and high unemployment threaten to stoke protectionism, the World Trade Organization and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development told the Group of 20 major global economies.

There has been a “dangerous increase” in pressure on governments to shield their domestic industries from foreign competition by applying barriers to commerce, the two organizations and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said today in a report commissioned by the G-20 for its summit in Seoul next week.