Amid the economic meltdown and slowdown in demand, countries, far and wide are putting in to place tariff barriers to protect their domestic industries. This factor is contributing more to the slowdown in exports than anything else. This bare fact has been recognized by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) in a report.

According to the report, growing protectionism across the globe means trouble for the domestic exporters. Countries are trying to escape being caught in the crisis by putting trade protectionist measures to safeguard and shield the domestic companies from any global competition.

The report cities the example of Indonesia, which is expected to put in to place safeguard measures for steel and chemical products early next year. Argentina has also strengthened anti-dumping measures. India recently conducted an anti-dumping investigation in to steel imports from Korea, says the report.

The report quotes Brazil and Argentina as having expanded the scope of minimum import prices suddenly, which has resulted in shipments of Korean origin being held up at its ports. Turkey is also supposed to have put some safeguarding measures in place. The US which has a strong, but labour intensive steel industry is also expected to put up measures.

Korea is also bothered about exports to one of its largest trading partners; China, due to repercussions of US import regulations on China. China in turn is expected to put its own regulatory measures in place which could hit chemical exports from Korea. The EU is also expected to strengthen vehicle-related environment regulations and increase restrictions on steel imports.