Surely this is a case book example of the free market in action.
But of course this picture is missing one of the key mechanisms of a truly free market -- there's no market pricing of the market participants themselves. You can't buy out a government that's acting foolishly.
Whether the government taxes you less, pays you directly, or puts tariffs on your foreign competitors, it all amounts to a subsidy in the end.
(And I don't disagree that it's a foolish idea.)