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Originally Posted by bigt2k4
I highly disagree with the notion in this thread that if one country is able to freely export while protecting against imports that it will be better off than true free trade. Input costs would skyrocket and they would be unable to produce enough to meet their own demands and the demands of exporting. Especially since the world isn't two countries and there are other countries engaging in free trade that country wouldn't be able to be competitive anymore with their exports.
I mean, China disproves your notion fully. Also, the idea isn't being fully protectionist as in not importing
anything. The idea is protect the industries you want to grow at the expense of other countries. If you can access their markets while they can't access yours, that is a huge boon for local producers.
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Also, the country engaging in protectionism wouldn't be incentivized to improve/innovate their product/process and would fall further behind the rest of the world.
This is a silly notion. What if the product process is already worked out and it's purely a war on who buys what? This is true of most products.
For two, there's plenty of incentive to improve and innovate from internal competition. Even beyond that, to sell in external markets, you must compete with external suppliers. So protectionism doesn't affect that at all for most classes of goods.
The fake news has given you a fake view of protectionism it seems. It's a huge positive as long as the other market leaves their country open while you close yours strategically, or use it as leverage to extract 50% ownership of foreign companies who want to enter.
Imagine how much wealthier the US would be if the US adopted China's policy - that those companies wanting access to the US market must build a factory in America, give the US government 50% ownership, and pass along all their IP - which the US then gives to its own 100% American companies to compete. All that German and Korean IP from Germans and Koreans wanting to sell here would be pretty great.