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This article is about a pending deal to stop "banana" wars. This is a dispute over the policy enacted in 1993 to give preferential treatment to bananas from former British colonies, and to put tariffs on other bananas. This distorted the market and created barriers to entry and exit. It also meant that firms in former colonies were making supernormal profit in the European banana market. This deal will put an end to this policy and make move the market for bananas closer to one of pure competition.

As growth in national economies continues to falter, many countries are attempting to increase their domestic prosperity by discouraging the sale of foreign products. With tariffs and other protective measures, countries are decreasing free trade in the interest of assissting domestic producers.

The US Congress is expected to back a set of punitive tariffs on Chinese imports in order to compensate for the artificial lowering of the value of the yuan. China's currency makes its products very cheap. The US is engaging in this protectionism in order to protect domestic workers.

This article mentions a possible tariff to be applied on cheap chinese products in the US. Such protectionism would result in higher prices for consumer, and possible retaliation from China.

In an effort to combat what is seen as deliberate action on the part of the Chinese government to keep that value of its currency artificially low to improve the competitiveness of exports in foreign markets, The US has considered devaluing its own currency. This has led to criticism from China and Russia.