Economic Nationalism Essay

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Economic nationalism is a body of policies that emphasize domestic control of the economy, labor, and capital formation, even if this requires the imposition of tariffs and other restrictions on the movement of labor, goods and capital. In many cases, economic nationalists oppose globalization or at least question the benefits of unrestricted free trade. Economic nationalism may include such doctrines as protectionism and import substitution. Examples Examples of this include Henry Clay's American System, French Dirigisme, Japan's use of MITI to "pick winners and losers", Malaysia's imposition of currency controls in the wake of the 1997 currency crisis, China's controlled exchange of the yuan, Argentina's economic policy of tariffs and devaluation in the wake of the 2001 financial crisis and the United States' use of tariffs to protect domestic steel production. Instances became more visible from 2005 after several governments intervened to prevent takeovers of domestic firms by foreign companies. Some cases include: * Proposed takeover of Arcelor (France and Luxembourg) by Mittal (India).[1] * French governmental listing of Danone (France) as a 'strategic industry' to pre-empt a potential takeover bid by PepsiCo (USA).[2] * Blocked takeover of Autostrade, an Italian toll-road operator by the Spanish company Abertis.[3] * Proposed takeover of Endesa (Spain) by E.ON (Germany), and the counter-bid by Gas Natural (Spain).[4] * Proposed takeover of Suez (France) by Enel (Italy), and the counter-bid by Gaz de France (France).[5] * United States Congressional opposition to the takeover bid for Unocal (USA) by CNOOC (PR China), and the subsequent takeover by Chevron (USA).[6] * Political opposition in 2006 to sell port management businesses in six major U.S. seaports to a company DP World based in the United Arab Emirates * Case of new
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