"Lacking knowledge" of EU citizens leads to inconsistent attitudes to trade policy: study

BERLIN, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Inconsistent attitudes towards free trade and protectionism of the EUropean Union (EU) citizens are "a matter of lacking knowledge of political issues," a newly published study by the German Economic Institute (IW) has found.

The study published on Thursday examined how EU citizens could hold the contradictory views of supporting free trade and protectionism at the same time. A 2018 EUrobarometer survey showed that almost 75 percent of EU citizens expressed positive views of free trade, while 39 percent simultaneously approved protectionism.

According to the IW, EU citizens were more likely to support protectionism when their national economy was doing well, and to reject protectionism if their economy was not doing so well.

The IW study found that the level of knowledge of EU citizens was directly related to their level of education. The better educated a respondent was and the more frequently they informed themselves about EUropean policy issues, the less likely they were to give contradictory answers.

Perceptions of protectionism were a "result of socio-economic factors, ideology, the economic situation in the home country and the extent of media consumption," the German Economic Institute found.

"This shows us that many EU citizens are not well enough informed," said Galina Kolev, senior economist at the IW and the study's author. "We urgently need better information."

An "intensified" public discussion about international economic subjects could "be helpful in addressing the issue of emerging protectionist views," the study said. A broad information strategy on international economic topics launched on multiple media channels, particularly radio, newspapers and the internet, would be one possible way to address the knowledge gap, the study recommended.