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I think "free trade" is great in theory when geography and climate are the driving forces of comparative advantages, but it falls apart when you're dealing in advanced processes like manufacturing and information technology that be done almost anywhere in the world. The IT side of this is often overlooked in free trade discussions. It's one thing to impose tariffs on manufactured products and raw materials, but it's damn near impossible to do anything to restrict the flow of information through electronic means.

"Comparative advantage" today is being driven by the fact that developing countries don't incur the overhead production costs that developed countries do.

The most obvious examples of this are labor forces that operate in slave-like conditions (and sometimes outright forced labor), as well as the fact that industry in developing countries doesn't have to worry about containing their industrial waste (unlike us, Chinese industries just dump their toxic waste raw into rivers or onto the ground). Furthermore, the industries in many developing economies are state-subsidized. As a result, their steel and aluminum mills can afford to overproduce at cost or even at a loss thanks to government funding, and then dump that metal onto us to undermine US domestic production.

Most of your points are correct. I'm not sure a "state-subsidized" industry has any real competitive advantage when you look at it from a macroeconomic perspective. I'm not sure it works in China's favor if their own taxpayers are forced to subsidize the production of cheap products that they can't even afford to buy themselves.

Is Boeing "state-subsidized" if they generate a lot of their revenue from U.S. defense contracts that aren't open to foreign bidders?

“and then dump that metal onto us to undermine US domestic production. “

Let’s not forget the advantage of currency pegging and devaluation.

As an example, China keep their currency pegged to the dollar at a rate that is estimated to be 35-40% below what it would be if it was free floating.

That’s a HUGE artificial advantage.

So, we have Comparative Advantage, Absolute Advantage and Artificial Advantage...something the classical economists never even considered. In their era, gold and silver were absolutes.

We again find ourselves in a Mercantilist world, with every country seeking advantage over the other. And ALL seeking the largest and richest market in the world.

And the USA has unilaterally disarmed while being picked clean.

It’s the largest transfer of capital stock in the history of man, and committed Free Traders refuse to see it.