Final answer:
Governments enact protectionist policies such as barriers, quotas, and other import regulations to protect domestic industries. These include nontariff barriers and import quotas, like the ones for Japanese automobiles and textiles under the Multifiber Agreement. The WTO works internationally to reduce these trade barriers.
Step-by-step explanation:
By erecting barriers, designing quotas, and implementing other import regulations, governments have attempted to engage in protectionism. This practice involves government policies to reduce or block imports in order to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. Nontariff barriers are used by countries to create rules, regulations, inspections, and paperwork that make it more costly or difficult to import products. One specific example of trade control is through import quotas, which are numerical limitations on the quantity of products that can be imported. For instance, the Reagan Administration imposed a quota on the import of Japanese automobiles in the early 1980s.
The international Multifiber Agreement was another protectionist measure that aimed to manage job and income loss due to offshore textile production. This agreement divided the market for textile exports between importers and the remaining domestic producers, from 1974 to 2004. On a global scale, the World Trade Organization (WTO) seeks to negotiate reductions in barriers to trade and adjudicate complaints about violations of international trade policy, acting as the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).