The economist presents the case against protectionism:

At the moment, the likely disruption to patterns of employment is surely being exaggerated. The actual and prospective migration of service-sector jobs is small, and likely to remain so, compared with the background level of job creation and destruction in an economy with as much vitality as America's. And technological and geographical constraints will continue to keep many service-sector jobs close to the customer. In some ways, in fact, this is a pity: the greater the disruption, the greater the benefits. As competition forces some jobs in services abroad, it will call forth the creation of new jobs in services in their place. And on average they will be better, higher-paying jobs than the ones that migrate. The evidence shows this is happening (see article). In practice as well as in principle, the fusty old idea of comparative advantage still works.

[As seen on Samizdata.net]