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Department of Trade and Industry: "The world must respond to GSA protectionism"
_{Speech by the Minister}

Free trade allows countries to specialize in what they do best, and benefit from the comparative advantage of others. It promotes competition, innovation, and efficiency in the global market. Free trade creates more opportunities for businesses, consumers, and workers, and enhances the welfare of all parties involved. Trade is not a 'zero sum game', everyone wins.

Protectionism may seem appealing in the short term, but has many negative consequences in the long run. Tariffs distort the market, create inefficiencies, and reduce overall gains from trade. They increase the costs for consumers, who have to pay higher prices for lower quality products; producers, who face reduced demand and lower profits; and also harm workers, who lose their jobs or face lower wages due to reduced productivity and competitiveness.

The recent announcement of tariffs to be applied to imports in to the newly formed GSA Customs Union is a warning to the world that the GSA is clearly committed to protectionism, anti-enterprise, and determined to create a bi-polar world where the two camps are destined to eye each other suspiciously from entrenched positions rather than work together for the prosperity and peace of the whole world.

These tariffs are a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

The tariffs also put at risk projects specifically between the British Crown Commonwealth and Flourishing Southlands including inward investment into the Campo Grande Railway between Buenos Aires and the west of Brazil. And the initial discussions of an Guyanan Shield railway which would connect the European Guyanas to Macapa and Manaus on the Amazon river, effectively increasing costs by 15-20% and destroying the business case.

Our previous agreements to develop a standard Brazil / BCC missile family and work together on military and civil aircraft will also be reviewed.

We have officially today proposed to the European Council- that we match these tariffs like-for-like to be increased or decreased and have started discussions with the Collective security entente to consider if closer economic co-operation should be considered given the strategic importance of economic concerns and link to security.