Analyze and evaluate the impact of any major protectionist measure undertaken by the country allocated to you.  (Japan)

Trade protectionist measures are the deliberate attempt to limit imports or promote exports by putting up barriers to trade. There are 3 types of barriers, quotas, subsidies and tariffs. Quotas refer to setting a limit on the amount of imports on a certain good. Tariffs refer to charging a higher price on imported goods. Subsidies refer to the money the government gives the domestic producer in order for them to keep prices low. These measures are taken by governments of countries to protect their domestic producers so they can provide competitive prices to the international producers. This is also done because an increase in the domestic production will lead to an increase in the GDP. 

Japan as decided to provide a 70,000 ton tariff free import quota and will maintain high tariffs for the other importers. Japan is willing to do so in return for a reduction of tariffs in the automotive industry in U.S. This will greatly affect all the stakeholders of both the countries.

In Japan, the rice producers will be worse off because they will receive more competition since the U.S. exporters will not have to pay tariffs. The consumers will be better off because they will not have to pay tariffs on the U.S. imported rice. The Japanese government will be worse off because they will not be receiving the income from tariffs. The U.S. government will benefit because they will have an increase in exports which will lead to credits in their balance of payments. 

Alternately, the Japanese automobile producers will benefit since they can compete in the U.S. and and also, the Japanese exports will increase to add credits to their balance of payments. The U.S. producers will be worse off because they will have to face more competition. Also, the customers in the U.S. will have to pay lower prices for the Japanese cars and hence they will benefit.

In this case, for Japan allowing this quota will affect them in the following ways.

The infant industries will not be able to provide competitive process but it will also make them more competitive and they will become more efficient. This is because the international producers will be selling at low prices which the Japanese producers will not be able to compete with. Also, to fight this competition, the Japanese producers will become more efficient and they will have more incentive.

This can lead to dumping because if there is no tariff, the U.S. producers can sell their goods at cheaper prices than they do in their own country and will increase their exports. This will harm the Japanese economy.

This will be worse for the Japanese government because they will lose the revenue collected by tariffs.

There will also be unemployment because the domestic firms will not produce as much as they did before since the quota has increased.

The automobile industry in Japan will grow and also,they will be able to dump their goods in the U.S. and will eliminate competition.

The Japanese exports will increase since their automobiles will be sold at competitive lower prices.

After considering the above points, it can be concluded that the trade protectionism policy has its pros and cons and it may help the domestic producers, but a government has to also increase its exports and by protecting their domestic producers, the other countries will also produce theirs in retaliation. Hence, these policies have to be well negotiated and it may help both the countries. In this case, the Japanese rice market is worse off but the automobile industry will benefit a lot since they are being able to export to U.S at more competitive prices than the automobile producers in the rest of the world. Hence, I would like to conclude that this protectionist policy of Japan will be beneficial for the country as a whole since they are having a constant growth in imports and exports which maintains the balance of payments but also, it helps the country be at better terms with other countries, in this case, the U.S. Hence, trade protection measures are beneficial to the economy of a country.

Raj Ranka