Economist Don Boudreaux says:
The whole world would be made better off – but the Chinese people especially – if Beijing took a more hands-off approach to trade (and every other economic) policy. But Americans would be made worse off if, under the pretext of ‘responding’ to Beijing’s misguided trade policy, Uncle Sam ramped up his own mercantilist policies.
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It’s true that Americans would be better off if Beijing pursued laissez-faire economic policies. But, practically, that’s none of our business. Understand that it’s also true that you’d be better off if your next-door neighbor saved more, for each addition to the capital stock increases worker productivity and total output. Surely, though, you would not reduce your own savings rate simply because you determine that your neighbor is saving too little. Would you?
I'm very sympathetic to the argument that the response to other countries' protectionism should not be protectionism of our own. However, I wonder how far Boudreaux would go with the "none of our business" view. For those who believe in free trade, is there some other effective response to foreign protectionism? If we believe that certain policies are better than others, are there appropriate ways to promote them? At the very least, we could say what we think the best policies are (even if we don't always practice them!).