You're not going to get free trade if it's unilateral, because you've then created an incentive for the other side to protect their own industries knowing you're not going to retaliate, while reaping the benefits of access to your market.
Unilaterally not hitting you head against the wall is bad, because you remove the incentive for the other side to stop hitting their head against a wall?
> while reaping the benefits of access to your market.
Huh, what? Trade is a win-win situation: you and your people benefit from imports, too.
Your analogy is flawed, because there is no benefit to hitting your head against the wall, but your domestic businesses benefit from reduced competition.
And that also answers your second objection - if governments never gave preference to business interests over people, the world would look very different.
