Greenspan urges war on "creeping protectionism"

[Socialist Christian]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1504&ncid=1504&e=7&u=/afp/20031120/bs_afp/us_economy_trade_031120174215


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WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Federal Reserve (news - web sites) chairman Alan Greenspan (news - web sites) called for action to counter "creeping protectionism" in the United States and elsewhere that threaten the global economy.


In a veiled warning to the US administration, which has embarked on high-profile trade battles in recent months, Greenspan said it was imperative for the growing threat to be "thwarted and reversed."


The influential Federal Reserve chief warned, without specifically naming the disputes, that protectionism was a threat to the international economic recovery fueled by freer global trading.


"Should globalization be allowed to proceed and thereby create an ever more flexible international financial system, history suggests that current imbalances will be defused with little disruption," he said in a speech at a financial conference in Washington.