That all changed with industrialization because manufacturing is a capital-intensive process where there are no major natural advantages like you have in agriculture. As a result, manufacturing tended to migrate to places where: (1) the cost of materials and the availability of transportation infrastructure were favorable for industry, and (2) government policies made it attractive to do business.
Having said that ... China didn't surpass the U.S. in GDP because of anything related to trade policy. China was eventually going to surpass the U.S. in GDP no matter what -- because China's population is something like four times the size of ours.
You really have to shake your head about it: “The Chinese are (bigger/better/whatever), so we need to raise taxes on ourselves.” Seriously?