To what extent do you think that UK businesses will experience a fall in profit if governments limit free trade by adopting protectionist policies?

Protectionist policies that governments may impose ca consist of tariffs, quotas and embargoes. These can lead to a fall in profits for UK businesses to a large extent because they limit and discourage globalisation and international trade, however this may not apply to all types of businesses, and the effects on profits may vary in the short and long term.Protectionist policies may lead to a fall in profits for a UK business to a large extent as, for example for a car manufacturer, the government imposing a tariff on cars exported abroad, means that the costs of exporting cars is more expensive and therefore UK cars may appear unattractive to other markets, meaning that people may choose to purchase cars from other countries which may not have such high costs or protectionist policies, and therefore sales and overall profits for the firm will fall. The government may also impose quotas and embargoes which restrict goods exported, also leading to a fall in sales and therefore overall revenues and profits for the firm. The extent that profits will fall when protectionist policies are imposed depends on how price elastic the product is, and the level of available substitutes that can replace the product from other markets, as well as whether the business trades on a global market, as a small local dog walking business who doesn't import or export will not see an increase in costs or a decrease in sales, and therefore profits will be unaffected.However, in the long term, UK businesses may experience a a rise in profits, as protectionist policies can make importing goods more expensive and unattractive, and therefore this can lead to a rise in trading internally within the UK, making UK products more attractive to other UK businesses, which may eventually lead to a rise in sales and therefore overall revenue and profits for certain UK businesses, for example a UK farm growing tomatoes may now be able to compete with the prices of its rival tomato farms in other countries where production costs are lower. The extent to which the UK can become self sufficient, and firms can trade internally, depends on the extent, and availability or products in the UK market, for example the UK specialises in financial services, not manufacturing, and therefore for certain industries the market may still rely on exporting from a global market.Overall UK businesses will experience a large fall in profits in the short term if the government impose protectionist policies as ultimately this will lead to a fall in sales, however this depends on the type of business, the size of the business and the nature of the products as not every business operates on a global market and therefore not every business may be affected directly by these policies.