<i>Because if everyone responded to import quotas with import bans...</i><p>I proposed an import quota identical to the Chinese one, except that it only applies to China.<p>If every country responded in kind, then no country would be doing what China is doing. (No one provoked China's bad behavior.) If every other country responded in kind <i>only to the one country who is behaving badly</i>, that single country would be isolated and might change their behavior.