Bowral 7 Chrysalis, my dear well meaning but misguided friends, if every country adopted protectionist policies world trade would come to a standstill.
By adopting protectionist policies, we punish those countries that can produce goods more efficiently and cheaper than we can.
As you correctly point out, we are in a phase where developing nations have an increasing prominance in the world economy. This is a demographpic issue. Should we deny them their rightful place in the world economy by implementing obstructionist trade policy? No, I wouldn't have thought so.
Many years ago, it was often though that technological advancements leading to the automation of various production functions would eventually lead to a redundancy in the labour function. To an extent it has, but we have found ways to re-deploy our labour force such that the fallout has not been significant. Service-based industries have increased in prominence as a result.
The answer for Australia and its manufacturing industries in response to the threat of cheaper imports is NOT to simply slap a tariff on the imports.
Rather, our industry needs to innovate and find ways to become more eficient rather than doggedly persisting with current inefficient manufacturing practices, and in particular, a heavily unionised labour force that really doesn't seem interested in engaging in the process of becoming more efficient.
