Despite the economic recovery and contrary to the G20 commitment, a mere ten percent of those measures have been removed in the meantime. Ahead of the G20 summit in Seoul, the European Commission calls on its trading partners to remove the remaining restrictions in order not to undermine the recovery.

EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said: “With the economic recovery still fragile, the world’s major economies must remove the trade restrictive measures that put a break on growth. For the world economy to move forward, we have to roll back these barriers. The G20 summit in Seoul needs to demonstrate leadership in this respect.”

The latest report is the seventh in a series of reports which the European Commission has been issuing on trade restrictive measures adopted by major trade partners since the beginning of the economic crisis in 2008. The monitoring mechanism has been an important tool to ensure vigilance during the crisis and prevent an escalation of trade protectionism.

The report covers thirty of the EU’s trading partners over the two-year period from October 2008 to September 2010. The measures found range from classical trade barriers such as import bans or tariff increases to “buy national” and other behind-the-border policies. The report finds that many of the new barriers are rapidly becoming permanent features of the world trading system and risk undermining the economic recovery.