ABSTRACT
A key policy question in this context is how to manage adjustment and compensate losers. This question is frequently asked in industrial countries, and is particularly important in political democracies. Yet I do not conclude that the use of trade measures, including safeguard measures, is the right way to manage adjustment. As economists, we know that safeguards are a suboptimal way of managing compensation and, in my view, we should advocate superior ways of dealing with the problem. The expansion of contingent protectionism, and especially its impact on the trade access of developing countries, remains a huge problem for the system.
