Let me state the question more clearly: according to your theory, why can&#x27;t we trade-barrier our way to prosperity within a country as well as between countries?<p>I do agree with you that developing nations (e.g. China, India, Brazil) doing catch-up growth have grown faster than frontier nations (USA, Japan) that can&#x27;t do catch-up growth. I would be very wary of attributing this to protectionism.