The U.S. trade deficit is shrinking primarily because the global financial crisis is causing U.S. exports to drop faster than U.S. imports. In today's severe global economic downturn, concerns are being raised that countries may try to improve their own trade positions in order to help domestic industries at the expense of others by imposing measures that artificially increase their exports or restrict imports. Such efforts are considered by some to be a form of "protectionism". This book develops three scenarios to approximate different dimensions of the relationship between the global economic downturn and protectionism, as well as reviewing why the U.S. trade deficit is shrinking so severely.