9.4 The Case Against Protection For as long as nations and international trade have existed, people have debated whether free international trade or protection from foreign competition is better for a country. The debate continues, but most economists believe that free trade promotes prosperity for all countries while protection reduces the potential gains from trade. We’ve seen the most powerful case for free trade: All countries benefit from their comparative advantage. But there is a broader range of issues in the free trade versus protection debate. Let’s review these issues.

Three Traditional Arguments for Protection Three traditional arguments for protection and restricting international trade are The national security argument The infant-industry argument The dumping argument Let’s look at each in turn.

The National Security Argument