The Effects of Protection on the Factor Content of Japanese and American Foreign Trade

Abstract
Data on pre-Tokoyo round tariffs and ad valorem approximations of nontariff barriers are used in the Michigan Computational Model of World Production and Trade to calculate changes in commodity trade attributable to protection in Japan and the United States. Data on factor requirements in production are then used to calculate the factor contents of these computed changes in trade. Results indicate that Japanese protection is more distortionary of factor markets in Japan and United States than is American protection, and that U.S. manufacturing labor would be the least likely to gain from trade liberalization and/or the United States.