Argentina Finds Free Trade Is Hard to Do

Mauricio Macri took office as president of Argentina on a pledge to open up the economy, one of the most closed in the world. Eleven months later, he's finding that opening industry up after more than a decade of protections was harder than he'd imagined. Even steps to remove the most extreme and arbitrary restrictions on imports, which the World Trade Organization has ruled illegal, have been opposed by industry and provoked some backtracking by Macri's center-right coalition. Now the president is prepared to renew the fight by reducing tariffs on imported personal computers by as much as 35%. Tens of thousands of jobs depend on the home appliances, air conditioners, and mobile phones assembled in the far south by Samsung, LG, Nokia, and Ruawei Technologies, and the clothing, footwear, and textiles manufactured across the country -- industries that survive thanks to subsidies or protectionism.