It does not call for anyone to "meekly" do anything, but it does create a positive business environment as well as illustrating that one nation can achieve economic gains even if they are inferior on every level in their production capacities with other countries.
It works when the US buys computer components from India and spends its energy assembling units, rather than splitting its time between producing components and assembling computers, and vice versa with India spending mosty of its time (if not all) producing components and not assembling computers.
The US ends up with more computers because there are more components available (at a lower cost I may add), simultaneously, we also have more labor available to assemble computers since they're no longer working at manufacturing components, and India ends up with more industry via the increased demand for components.
Eventually, this symbiosis will stop working, as India's economy will rise to the point where they will seek to compete in the production of the higher profit generating finished product and in turn, they will seek cheaper manufacturing for components.
This is neither a big "Group Hug", nor "One World" economics, this is reality.
Implicit throughout your reasoning is the assumption that every country embraces our values, our business customs, our beliefs in trade and that they will play by our rules. The reality is that most countries, particularly in Asia, reject free trade, practice protectionism and are, unlike us, consumed with building UP the industries they deem important with the absolute intention of dominating those industries. Again, this is completely outside the notions and assumptions of comparative advantage.
China, for example, proves this on a daily basis. They are not interested, long term, in being a supplier of components for higher end U.S. manufacturing. They want and seek, to have firm top to bottom control of their OWN industries and will do whatever they can to achieve this, including pirating patents, copyrights and engaging in industrial espionage. And Oh, when it comes to American Made products that have comparative advantages what does China do? They put up trade barriers or, as often the case, require that the American Company build its facilities in Mainland China or No Deal.
The notion that America benefits by freely collaborating with a nation that practices such merticantism and trade protectionism with the ever objective of taking over critical American industries is just plain naive. Our massive trade deficit with China (and others) should to testament that.
In the end, Free Trade only works when nations have compatible trade laws, customs, and standards of living.
For all the wishful thinking about China and that they are moving away from their statist/communist form of government, many people seem to forget that it was just 3 years ago that the ChiComs threatened to Nuke LA.
This is not to say we should not trade with China or any other nation for that matter. It is to say that when dealing with 3rd world nations, particularly collectivist, closed-end countries, trade safeguards have to put in place to assure critical technologies, developed in the U.S. by Americans, are not wantonly given away that could have grave repercussions in reducing our military and technological superiority. It also means that we should not reward China for its slave labor practices and its absence of any basic labor laws and environmental regulations (to name a few) by letting them use these huge cost advantages in putting U.S. industries out of business.
Trade in the Real World is not explained well by some Warm Fuzzy concepts that ignore the history of nations and presumes wars are a thing of the past.