~r-win M. Stelzer, in Commentary (July 1990), 165 E. 56th St., New York. N.Y. 10022.

For Irwin Stelzer, a Fellow at the Ameri- can Enterprise Institute, Japan's high wall of protectionism poses a special problem. As a strong believer in free trade, he should oppose retaliatory U.S. trade barri- ers. After all, he argues, "if the Japanese choose to rely on high-cost homemade products rather than on more efficient American-made alternatives, why should we retaliate denying ourselves their w...