To examine the benefits of free trade the merits and flaws of protecionism are evaluated below. The majority of liberal / neo-liberal economists and to a lesser extent politicians have frequently argued that free trade is more beneficial than protectionism.

Protectionism in economic terms at least has often received a bad press especially by those economists that have regarded it as being highly damaging and detrimental to world trade. The criticism of economists however does not seem to be detrimental to governments continuing to use protectionism with varying degrees of success. However the decision as to whether or not to adopt protectionist or free trade economic policies is almost always in the domain of national governments. National governments can often vary the levels of protection to reflect perceived national interests, and as a reflection of which countries they prefer to trade with.

Protectionism is the restriction of trade through various means and measures. Protectionist measures such as import quotas tariff restrictions, and complete bans of imports of certain products or products from certain countries have been around for a long time. There can be less formal protectionist measures such as insisting that imported products have to meet certain quality or safety standards, and in the past some countries insisted that imports were only allowed through certain ports or airports that only limited storage capacity. Such measures have tended to be adopted by national governments to protect their own domestic producers and businesses from foreign competition.

Tariffs and import quotas have been justified by arguments about protecting jobs, vital or sensitive sections of the economy, and of course business profits. The criteria or justifications for adopting protectionist measures and policies will vary from country to country, sometimes those justifications can contradict each other leading to differing levels of protectionism for differing sectors of differing economies.

Protectionist measures can be overtly restrictive such as the imposition of tariffs, custom, and excise duty charges, import quota levels or outright bans on the importing of specific products. The imposing of overt protectionist measures can have various responses. Protectionism can lead to trade wars between rival countries or increasingly between rival trading blocs. The adoption of protectionist measures can lead to trade discussions between those

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