Dr. Taleb P. Sulaiman and Sedqi M. Eissa and Dr. Tahsin H. Samael
Assistants Professors of Private Law, Faculty of Law
and Political Science and Administration, Soran University, Iraq

Abstract:

It is indisputable that the protectionist trade war declared by former US President Donald Trump on January 22, 2018, and continued in force during the reign of current President Joe Biden, who declared his adherence to it in 2021, is not recent, but the United States of America has a long history with these wars. Such as: President Kennedy’s decision, in the early sixties of the last century, to impose customs duties on a certain group of European products, and President Reagan’s decision, in 1988, to impose customs duties on Brazilian medical products, and President Bush Jr.’s decision in 2001, to impose the same penalty on a certain group of goods from Ukraine.
However, what distinguishes this war from its predecessors is that it is wide-ranging and directed at more than 100 countries. It has had negative effects on the global economy, whether in terms of increasing inflation rates, rising interest rates, slowing the movement of foreign investments, or exacerbating debt service.
In this way, the countries of the Group of Twenty (G20) confirmed that the perpetuation of this war will cause a huge loss in the global gross domestic product, estimated at 10 billion US dollars by the year 2025, in addition to their role in undermining the role of economic globalization organizations in managing international trade, led by the Organization world Trade. Accordingly, this research focused on studying the nature of this protectionist trade war. In terms of its concept, its legal basis, the reasons for its outbreak, its continuity, and its legal effects at the internal and external levels, as well as indicating the means to extinguish it and its extinction, based on the descriptive analytical approach. The research concluded with several results, most notably that the vital mechanisms that were used in the implementation of the American protectionist trade war were represented in customs tariffs, import quota systems, and monetary restrictions, and that the decision of the American administration to impose customs duties on imports of goods and products of a number of countries of the world, It was met with great anger by those countries, and resulted in corresponding measures from them, which negatively affected the global economy.
The research recommended the need to adopt economic and commercial flexibility, and to fulfill the commitments made within the framework of the World Trade Organization, especially those related to not placing obstacles and barriers to the flow of international trade in goods, services, and people. It also recommended inviting all concerned countries to negotiate to amend the provisions of the provisions of the agreements related to international trade in goods and services that were concluded under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization in 1994.

Keywords: trade war, tariffs, protectionism, America first, and the World Trade Organization.

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