Editing Protectionism (section)

====Argentina====
Argentina, which had been insignificant during the first half of the 19th century, showed an impressive and sustained economic performance from the 1860s up until 1930. A 2018 study describes Argentina as a "super-exporter" during the period 1880–1929, and credits the boom to low trade costs and trade liberalization on one hand and on the other hand to the fact that Argentina "offered a diverse basket of products to the different European and American countries that consumed them". The study concludes "that Argentina took advantage of a multilateral and open economic system."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Pinilla|first1=Vicente|last2=Rayes|first2=Agustina|date=2018-09-27|title=How Argentina became a super-exporter of agricultural and food products during the First Globalisation (1880–1929)|journal=[[Cliometrica]]|volume=13|issue=3|pages=443–469|language=en|doi=10.1007/s11698-018-0178-0|s2cid=158598822|issn=1863-2505|url=http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/84206|hdl=11336/177360|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

Beginning in the 1940s, [[Juan Perón]] erected a system of almost complete protectionism against imports, largely cutting off Argentina from the international market. Protectionism created a domestically oriented industry with high production costs, incapable of competing in international markets. At the same time, output of beef and grain, the country's main export goods, stagnated.<ref name="cht">{{cite web|title=Argentina Trade Policy |work=Commanding Heights: The Battle For The World Economy |publisher=PBS |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/countries/ar/ar_trade.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426054555/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandingheights/lo/countries/ar/ar_trade.html |archive-date=2011-04-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The IAPI began shortchanging growers and, when world grain prices dropped in the late 1940s, it stifled agricultural production, exports and business sentiment, in general.<ref>{{cite news|author=Antonio Cafiero |title=Intimidaciones, boicots y calidad institucional |newspaper=Página/12 |date=2008-05-07 |url=http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/subnotas/103697-32644-2008-05-07.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211073528/http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/subnotas/103697-32644-2008-05-07.html |archive-date=2012-02-11 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Despite these shortcomings, protectionism and government credits did allow an exponential growth of the internal market: radio sales increased 600% and fridge sales grew 218%, among others.<ref>{{cite book|author=Pablo Gerchunoff |title=''Peronist Economic Policies, 1946–1955'' |publisher=di Tella y Dornbusch |pages=59–85 |year=1989}}</ref> During this period Argentina's economy continued to grow, on average, but more slowly than the world as a whole or than its neighbors, Brazil and Chile. By 1954, while still leading the region, Argentina's GDP per capita had fallen to less than half of that of the United States, from being 80% equivalent before the 1930s.<ref>{{cite web |last=Arnaut |first=Javier |title=Understanding the Latin American Gap during the era of Import Substitution: Institutions, Productivity, and Distance to the Technology Frontier in Brazil, Argentina and Mexico's Manufacturing Industries, 1935–1975 |url=http://www.fcs.edu.uy/archivos/Arnaut,%20Understanding%20the%20Latin%20American%20Gap%20during%20the%20era%20of%20Import%20Substitution.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426051927/http://www.fcs.edu.uy/archivos/Arnaut,%20Understanding%20the%20Latin%20American%20Gap%20during%20the%20era%20of%20Import%20Substitution.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-26 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Jorge Avila |title=Ingreso per cápita relativo 1875–2006 |publisher=Jorge Avila Opina |date=2006-05-25 |url=http://www.jorgeavilaopina.com/?p=61 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303175246/http://www.jorgeavilaopina.com/?p=61 |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead }}</ref>