AbstractWe explore the effects of country asymmetries in a general oligopolistic equilibrium model with segmented markets. Firms' oligopolistic behaviour in segmented markets has macro‐level effects when countries' characteristics or policies are asymmetric. Due to their effect on strategic firm behaviour, country asymmetries can induce deviations from the law of one price, which gives rise to terms‐of‐trade based international shifts in consumption and welfare. We demonstrate that by studying the welfare and distributional effects of asymmetric labour market policies.