Carefully explain why political pressure to protect industry has often been intense in the United States

What will be an ideal response?

There are many reasons why political pressure to protect industry is intense. One reason is that Congressional reforms removed some of the insulation from industry lobbyists that Congress enjoyed in the 1950s and 1960s. Another reason stems from the end of the Cold War and the lessening of U.S. willingness to sacrifice trade issues for the sake of maintaining close geopolitical alliances. A third reason is the rise of the export-oriented East Asian newly industrializing countries (NICs), including China, and the pressure they have put on a number of domestic U.S. industries. Finally, the growth of the U.S. trade deficit and the widespread fear in the 1980s that the United States had lost its competitive edge also contributed to a greater reluctance to open U.S. markets without reciprocity by other countries. More recently, the rapid increase of the U.S. trade deficit and the loss of manufacturing jobs since 2000 are conditions likely to bring back the competition fears of the 1980s. For each of these reasons, trade conflicts have intensified.