This card states that players may gain one Tech "acquired" by one of their trade partners. Is there a definitive ruling on how this works? Some of us think that "acquired" is essentially shorthand for "acquired during gameplay." Others think it should apply to any tech held, including starting techs. This is strange in the case of the Muaat, because although they begin with War Suns, it's a nurfed tech at first. It seems strange (and possibly over-powered) that someone could use this Political Card to achieve better War Suns than the Muaat, considering they're learning that tech directly from the Muaat.

It does not matter about Pre-requistes when this tech is aquired. You can aquire any tech your trade partner has.
Yes this will mean that the Muatt's trade partners can have better Warsuns then they do.

I agree with Funky - starting techs are counted in this like any other tech. You could acquire "better" War Suns than the Muaat in this way, though I've found that in the game before Muaat upgrade their War Suns to full strength, spending 12 resources to BUILD a War Sun is probably not the best investment that early in the game.