From Prof Jagdish Bhagwati.

Sir, Clyde Prestowitz fell prey to fallacious argumentation and played a role in converting President Clinton to unproductive Japan-bashing on trade in 1992 – Clinton went so far as to cite Mr Prestowitz’s endorsement of his candidacy in the third presidential debate – when Silicon Valley was fearful of Japanese competition. His article “Obama can help free trade with tariffs on China” (September 11), which is guilty of even more egregious fallacies, is likely to have played a similar role in persuading President Obama to surrender to pressure from the United Steelworkers, and protectionists in Congress such as Representative Sharrod Brown (Democrat, Ohio), in announcing tariffs on Chinese tyres on the same evening.