In a world without a level playing field, the solution to poor quality industrial policy is better industrial policy. Foreign subsidies don’t result in a net t

In a world without a level playing field, the solution to poor quality industrial policy is better industrial policy. Foreign subsidies don’t result in a net transfer of wealth if they undercut your otherwise competitive domestic industry, for obvious reasons. It results in a misallocation of capital and the erosion of opportunities that should have otherwise existed domestically. All countries engage in free market distortion, to varying degrees. That may well be a suboptimal use of their resources, but unfortunately it also hurts countries that don’t respond in kind and who have bought into some simplified economic policy slogans.