It is usually in time of crisis (economic), protectionist sentiments against imports competing with

domestic product tend to rise. These polices happens usually because of the two reason. In free
trade between countries, the difference in wage rate among across world causes workers in the
high wage economy to face two disastrous options i.e. unemployment or slave-level wages. The
second reason is associated with self-interest. The world is dominated by nationalist economic
policies. Thus the concept of competitive market and free trade policies simply doesn’t exist.
Even if one country plays by the rules of free market, other foreign government may support
their infant industries with subsidies, trade protection etc. This unlevel playing field causes
country to seek protectionism.

Pandemics like the current COVID pandemic also seemed to promote protectionism. Many
countries used strategic tariffs to protect the domestic markets and healthcare system against the
adverse effect of pandemic. However, the most important lesson learnt due to the pandemic is
that no country can solely rely on its domestic supplies or resources during a health and
economic emergency. No nation has all of the commodities that it needs as some countries are
abundant in certain resources, while others may lack them. Protectionism practice is usually seen
to reduce the adaptability and competitive strengths of the protected industry and can weaken the
entire economy even if the practice is temporary. If the protectionist route is followed throughout
the world, more efficient industries will have less scope to expand, as a result overall output and
economic welfare will suffer.

The pros of protectionism are largely temporary: creating jobs and buying time to develop
competitive advantage being perhaps the most significant. So the best long term strategy is to
view protection as temporary and strive to build lasting competitive advantages.
I think that good competition strengthens us in long term as it forces us to examine how we can
best meet the needs and preferences of our customers.

Protectionism is a good idea when dealing with infant industries as it gives precious time to a
company to invest in its production facilities, personnel skills and gain the domestic consumer's
trust before the national market opens to international competitors.

So, when is it good for your country to protect your industry with a tariff or other measures?
The one clear answer is that these measures can help your industry develop in the face of
stronger competition from outside your country. But once an industry is well-established in a
country, however,

A nation can use the policy of protecting its infant industry, but for how long is a key concern.
The protective policy may actually end up costing a government significant amount of money
and financial resources in order to protect its infant industry. Moreover, this may actually
promote inefficiencies by the infant industry as it may lack the competitive pressures to be
efficient and be ready to compete. This type of protectionism may also hinder the growing pains
and maturation process that are important for an infant industry to experience in the short and
long-term if it is to be successful and competitive in global markets. Similarly, protection of
domestic producers is attained at the expense of domestic consumers, who ultimately have to pay
higher prices. This means consumers will have low disposable income to spend on other
domestic producers. So, don’t you think protectionism actually does more harm than good?

In addition, protectionism in the long run also hurts production by curbing

the pressure from foreign competition.

Brazil has long been in favor of the "infant industry" argument for protectionism, which says
tariffs foster the growth of national champions that would otherwise be crushed by foreign
competition. However this argument in favor of protectionism has cost the country a lot. Taking
the instance of computer industry of Brazil, in the 1980’s there were heavy protective policies in
place to defend Brazil’s computer industry from highly evolved international competitors.
However, technology advanced rapidly, and without any strategic alliances on a global scale, the
country largely missed out on these advances. While this protectionism seemed practical, it is
seen to have damaged industry prospects on a global level for Brazil in this scenario.

Because Brazil is such a closed economy, it ends up having very low productivity compared to
more developed countries. If you are more competitive you become more productive - and for
that you need to be more open and more integrated into global value chains,"

Competition from trade, and the benefits offered by larger

markets, can encourage a more efficient allocation of labour
and capital across sectors and across firms. This improved
allocation supports innovation and hence productivity
Despite all the uncertainty and shortage of essential goods and services within each
country, it is essential to keep the supply chain open and going, to meet the requirements
of all the countries across the globe through collective action They had entered into a truly
competitive global market and were unable to meet the challenges of competing. 
 Good competition, and by that I mean fair competition, strengthens us in the long term. It forces
us to examine how we can best meet the needs and preferences of our customers. This means
that nationwide anti-competitive practices can weaken the entire economy even if those
practices are temporary. As an example of protectionism, the Trabant shows us that even
though they lasted decades, these protections were inevitably temporary. This is partly because
political regimes are temporary, but it is also because the reasons which make protectionist
measures popular are temporary.

It is clear that there is substantial national security value to trade protectionism. However, the
opportunity cost of leveraging the ever-growing global markets make this an unattractive
prospect if taken to any extreme, as the benefits of global trade rapidly offset the risk of
economic dependency upon hostile nations.
Of course, protective policy while industry develops domestically is not a cure all.