This WSJ article (via Dingel, with some additional points) discusses fears of a surge in protectionism. Particularly interesting is the argument that global integration provides a potentially more effective avenue for rent-seeking: 

Global economic integration was expected to make dumping cases obsolete. If a steel company owns plants in the U.S., India and Brazil, the theory went, it wouldn’t join dumping cases for fear that some of its facilities would be targeted. Instead, said a WTO official, dumping cases have become potentially more potent. That same steel company can now file complaints in all three countries against a competitor in, say, China to cripple it.

According to the latest WTO survey, 16 countries launched 85 new antidumping cases during the first six months of 2008, compared with 61 investigations the year earlier. Expect a sharp rise in those numbers because the economic crisis deepened in the second half of the year. Almost half the complaints targeted China.