> I'm not sure why anyone cares about the US returning the favor.

I don't think you realize that protectionist measures in America is nothing new; in fact, we have quite a lot of protectionist measures. It's just a media bias here that makes you think otherwise.

Here's a chart from Euler Hermes (a unit of Allianz), Protectionism Is Not New: http://www.eulerhermes.com/economic-research/publications/Pa...