Introduction. The contradictions that have accumulated in the world economy call into question the advantages of globalization and free trade, reinforcing the tendencies of protectionism. Theoretical analysis. Since mercantilism, which created the prerequisites for the Industrial Revolution, protectionism and industrial policy havebeen used as complementary mechanisms. In the twentieth century, protectionism was fi nally ousted from trade policy and from scientifi c research. However, the policy of free-trade has not been able to remove the contradictions of the countries of the “core” and “periphery”, whose socio-economic inequality persists. There is a need to develop a new concept of international trade, called neoprotectionism. Empirical analysis. A signifi cant disruption of the international trade balance between its largest participants signifi cantly aff ects Russia. The reproduction system created after the reforms and the level of gross accumulation insuffi cient to overcome deindustrialization led to a high degree of depreciation of fi xed assets and the destruction of the production basis of the Russian economy. Results. The risk of external threats and the need to overcome the technological gap determine the use of neoprotectionism, which provides preferences primarily for enterprises aimed at social effi ciency, since the concept of a domestic producer has lost its original meaning in the process of globalization.