Let us refer to the first manifestation of globalization that entailed increased interdependence-trade, in whose bargaining for liberalization we can find evidence of the slower pace the European Economic Community(EEC) adopted. The first important GATT Round(Kennedy Round) brought the success of tariff cuts, an anti-dumping agreement to which the EEC subscribed. Nevertheless, it failed to address other issues related to EEC's protectionism: non-tariff barriers and agricultural subsidies in the Common Agricultural Policy(CAP). .
Another representative moment for the relation between the EEC and trade liberalization was in the 1980s, when two factors have contributed to increased tensions between the two trends: galloping development of Japan and the Newly Industrialized Countries and EEC's enlargement towards the poorer Mediterranean countries. The former pushed the EEC to use the safeguards clause of GATT and, under the claim of the necessity to preserve its living standards, barred the entrance of imports from these countries. The latter led to increased agricultural and regional assistance as Greece, Portugal and Spain countries could not face world competition. To these factors added the EEC's agreements with some of the least developed countries in the Lome Convention of trade preferences-a serious violation of one of the key GATT principles, nondiscrimination.
The Tokyo Round was successful in what regards the further reduction of tariffs in industrial production, but it failed in the same important respects related to liberalization: agricultural subsidies and non-tariff barriers. Thus, EEC continued to employ quite frequently orderly market agreements and voluntary export restraints. Agricultural liberalization was so sensitive an issue that not even the American pressures for the entrance of its exports in the Common Market had any effect.
New Protectionism(best characterized by non-tariff barriers) led to a notable feature of globalization, the development of multinational companies, especially through foreign direct investment, in countries not yet affected by voluntary export restraints and orderly market arrangements.
