The "protectionist taxes" are the way the U.E. give a chance to local corps against exported of slave-labor, which two of the world's biggest exporters are quite fond of.
It doesn't matter that they don't call it slave labor locally, label don't change the facts.
I hope you're not referring to the US and H1B workers, because if so, wait until you learn how hard it is to immigrate to the EU and how bad the situation of immigrant workers is here. These people would love to have something like H1B available here in EU. As an EU citizen, I feel very bad about the stuff we do to immigrants, and I hate how there's a class of unequal not-citizens among us, doing the dirtiest jobs the high EU society doesn't like to do.
It starts with access to healthcare insurance, for example. Try to get it as a non-permanent resident (who's not attending a school)! You have to have a job, there's no option to pay for yourself - unlike the US, where it's expensive but possible.
I'm talking about 1% of the adult population being in prison, I'm talking about the 13th amendment and slavery, and I'm talking about 'for profit' prisons.
Any country that has incentives (here they are economics and race related) toward increasing prison population is one a citizen should be very wary of.
Depriving someone of their liberties should ALWAYS be a significant cost for the government doing it.
It doesn't matter that they don't call it slave labor locally, label don't change the facts.
Seems more than justified to me.