LEARNING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain and analyze various arguments that are in support of restricting imports, including the infant

industry argument, the anti-dumping argument, the environmental protection argument, the unsafe

consumer products argument, and the national interest argument

• Explain dumping and race to the bottom

• Evaluate the significance of countries’ perceptions on the benefits of growing trade

As we previously noted, protectionism requires domestic consumers of a product to pay higher prices to

benefit domestic producers of that product. Countries that institute protectionist policies lose the economic

gains achieved through a combination of comparative advantage, specialized learning, and economies of scale.

With these overall costs in mind, let us now consider, one by one, a number of arguments that support

restricting imports.
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