Using threats of protectionism to open markets

At first glance this seems an almost benign strategy, opening markets to trade rather than closing markets by protection. However, it is really government management of trade. Each individual bilateral trade deal may seem insignificant, but it invites further political action of the same kind and undermines the system of rules governing trade in the GATT. Such arrangements may backfire, as happened with the USA-Japan accord on trade in semiconductors, when firms in the USA suffered rather than gained from the protection and the failures of the accord seemed to sow the seeds of further conflict.