Strategic delegation analysis has been limited to sales delegation cases, until
Jansen et al. (International Journal of Industrial Organization 25:531–539, 2007) presented
the case of market share delegation. In international trade theory, export rivalry and import
protection have always attracted considerable attention. This paper assesses the influence
upon optimal trade policy of introducing market share delegation in a trade duopoly
context. It shows that delegation matters, and different forms of delegation coupled with
asymmetric costs will imply different degrees of government intervention.