GENEVA, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Protectionist trade measures, including subsidies to struggling industries, are "sand in the gears of international trade that may retard the global recovery," the World Trade Organisation chief said on Monday.
In a joint statement with the heads of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the U.N. trade and development agency UNCTAD, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy stressed that the global crisis was not yet over.
"Rising unemployment will undoubtedly spark further protectionist pressures in the years to come," the three said, urging a rolling back of the tariffs, subsidies and "burdensome administrative procedures regarding imports" applied in response to the world's economic downturn.
"It is urgent that governments start planning a coordinated exit strategy that will eliminate these elements as soon as possible," the WTO, UNCTAD and OECD leaders said in their report for the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh later this month.