This unit is designed to investigate the reasons for international trade and the issue of trade protectionism by focusing on the case study of the U.S. trade relationship with Taiwan. The unit begins with a simulation that highlights the concepts of global interdependence, the need for international trade, and the distribution of the world's resources. After the simulation, international trade is brought to a real-world level by looking at the top 10 U.S. trading partners and specifically Taiwan's place among them. Students are assigned to search for products in their homes that were manufactured in Taiwan, and they are asked to speculate what products the U.S. exports to Taiwan. This information leads to a discussion of the principles upon which international trade is based. These basic concepts of absolute advantage, comparative advantage, and specialization are helpful in understanding how international trade in the ideal case can be beneficial to all nations. The next section explores who benefits and who loses in international trade, with an in-depth look at the long-standing economic debate on protectionism. Students are encouraged to think critically about the arguments for and against free trade in an effort to develop their own opinions about trade protectionism. Student opinions become even more crucial in the last section that utilizes the case of U.S.-Taiwan textile trade. Students will be asked to play certain roles before a fictitious congressional committee that is preparing to vote on whether or not to extend the current quotas on Taiwanese textile imports for three more years. Appendices include a list of optional and follow-up activities, discussions of the economic situations of the U.S. and Taiwan textile and apparel industries, a glossary of key terms, and a 7-item bibliography. (AA)