The Chinese have learned that we will levy a duty of only 2.5 percent on each vehicle imported for sale and have been keeping our import fee at that level even though they collect an import duty of 25 percent on any American-made car sold in China. Little wonder that President Trump congratulated the Chinese on the superior negotiating ability that produced such a disparity.

There is worse. For one thing, no foreigner can make cars in China unless he finds a Chinese partner—which will probably be a state-owned company—and then turns over all its American technology and intellectual property to that partnership. As you might imagine, this saves a lot of R&D expense for the Chinese.