Final answer:
Voluntary export restraints are trade limits negotiated between countries; examples include Japanese cars and Chinese solar panels, which were limited to protect domestic industries in the importing countries.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question revolves around voluntary export restraints (VERs), which are trade restrictions on the volume of exports negotiated between the importing and exporting countries. Historically, there have been several products subject to such restraints, but the examples given in the question primarily pertain to Japanese cars and Chinese solar panels. VERs were commonly used by Japan to limit the number of cars exported to the United States to avoid more severe trade restrictions. Similarly, Chinese solar panels have been subject to VERs due to trade disputes with both the United States and the European Union. In both cases, these restraints were meant to ease tensions that arose from rapid increases in the imports of these goods which were seen as threatening to domestic industries in the importing countries.