Forbidden to export: the monster that the war in Ukraine awoke (Mas)

Más (Colombia) published an article stating that the world has had a difficult succession of crises in recent years. The response of some countries, in the face of the pandemic and especially the war in Ukraine, has been to prohibit or limit their food exports, to privilege their compatriots. Globalization, which seeks the free world movement of goods and capital, but not of people, is having a powerful contradiction in the Covid-19 pandemic, and more recently in the war in Ukraine. As a result of the crises generated by these events, several countries have questioned the advisability of keeping their foreign trade policy unchanged, and some have adopted measures tending to limit it. Senior research fellow David Laborde, has been studying bans and restrictions on food exports around the world, in the framework of the crisis generated by the war in Ukraine. IFPRI finds that 25 countries have banned the export of one or more products, a decision that is still active in 20 of them. In addition, 9 countries have imposed export licenses, in 6 of which they are still active, and 3 more countries have adopted export taxes, in 2 of which they are still active. (See IFPRI tool, Food & Fertilizer Export Restrictions Tracker).