Can the parent support any of these claims? It's just a long string of assertions. > Japan and S Korea ... are protectionist They are not except in the absolu

Can the parent support any of these claims? It's just a long string of assertions. > Japan and S Korea ... are protectionist They are not except in the absolutist sense.[0] And the U.S. protects its politically powerful industries too. In fact, the last round of the WTO was held up primarily, IIRC, by the US (and possibly Europe) refusing to lower domestic agriculture protections. Finally, you are better off if you lower tariffs even if the other side does not. Whatever 'fair' means, tariffs cause goods to be more expensive for your consumers and divert economic resources from their most productive uses to unproductive domestic companies that hide behind tariffs. It breeds corruption (as the government picks winners rather than the market) and unproductive business, instead of meritocracy of competitive businesses. [0] For example, another absolute statement is 'everyone is a liar' - obviously true in an absolute sense but meaningless. Some are far more trustworthy than others; most people are not called "liars".