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Gordon Blasts Auto Bailout

British premier: "Protectionism the road to ruin."

Count British Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a leading voice in the chorus opposing the auto-industry bailout that Obama has been pushing. "I do think it is really important that we send out a signal today that protectionism would be the road to ruin," he said in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "If we get into a situation where countries made decisions irrespective of what happened anywhere else, then we will see the same problems of other times. The dividing line here is between an open society capable of trading round the world, against a protectionist response that happened in the 1930s and is totally unacceptable." The E.U. has said it will take action against America at the World Trade Organization if it helps the auto industry.