Title: The Benefits of Free Trade: Addressing Key Myths | Mercatus Center
Headings: The Benefits of Free Trade: Addressing Key Myths
The Benefits of Free Trade: Addressing Key Myths
The Truths of Free Trade
Myth vs. Reality

Content: These benefits increase as overall trade—exports and imports—increases. Free trade increases access to higher-quality, lower-priced goods. Cheaper imports, particularly from countries such as China and Mexico, have eased inflationary pressure in the United States. Prices are held down by more than 2 percent for every 1 percent share in the market by imports from low-income countries like China, which leaves more income for Americans to spend on other products. Free trade means more growth. At least half of US imports are not consumer goods; they are inputs for US-based producers, according to economists from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Freeing trade reduces imported-input costs, thus reducing businesses’ production costs and promoting economic growth. Free trade improves efficiency and innovation. Over time, free trade works with other market processes to shift workers and resources to more productive uses, allowing more efficient industries to thrive.