Don't agree.
Germany makes quality stuff and China makes cheap stuff. That is why they are successful and not because they have state planned economies.
We tried to protect the auto companies for decades from foreign competition. How'd that work out for us?
Ignoring the fact that everyone pays more for inferior products does not make that gargantuan drag on the economy go away. It's still there. It's just harder to see, like every program that takes a little from everyone to protect the few.
I don't think you understand what I said.
Free-trade between developed economies is fine because the unit labor cost (regulation/taxes/labor compensation/benefits et) is comparable between rich nations.
Free-trade between developed and undeveloped economies is robbery because the unit labor cost is totally skewed in favor of third world producers who don't pay benefits, pensions, pay salaries that are 1/100th of Western standards, or abide by any sort of environmental regulation, and consequently, pay very little in taxes,
Further, what you don't acknowledge is the US doesn't even a enjoy a free-trade relationship with China. China levies all kinds of tariffs against US-made products, but the US allows Chinese imports with no tariffs at all!
Germany is like the China of Europe. German success is overwhelming the result of the ECU and the EMU. Yes, German competitiveness is head and shoulders above most the developed world. But because the natural barrier of exchange rates no longer exist in Europe, Germany basically deindustrialized it's unproductive southern and eastern members of the eurozone. Hence the eurozone debt crisis.
As far as Germany and China go, they run more or less an equivalent balance of trade. I wasn't able to ascertain tariff rates applied to Chinese imports into the EU and visa versa. That's critical before anyone makes broad assumptions about the success of globalization and point to Germany and China as a great example.