On 3rd September, the Global Trade Alert (GTA) website was launched in Brussels – set up to monitor government spending in the economic downturn and how it may discriminate against foreign commerce.

The site, coordinated by the Center for Economic Policy Research, not only monitors state interventions but also identifies which trading partners they are likely to harm. Its contents are searchable by implementing country, trading partners harmed, by sector and by measure, including a wide range of explicit and implicit subsidies. Third parties are encouraged to report suspicious state measures and governments have a right to reply. Users who register can also sign up to receive alerts about countries of their interest.

The site includes an ‘Analysis’ section, with a broad range of papers about the nature of crisis-era protectionism. The GTA’s report, “Broken Promises — a G20 Summit Report”, concludes that the G-20 have failed to keep their “no-protectionist pledge”, calling for existing protectionism to be undone and future economic initiatives to be carefully reviewed.

For more information, see www.globaltradealert.org