Key terms
- Globalisation
- Globalisation is the expanding cultural, political and economic connections between people around the world, such as trade and flows of financial capital.
- Protectionism
- Protectionism is government policy to reduce or block imports, often to shield domestic producers and workers from foreign competition.
Small and poor economies have the most to gain from open trade
Low-income countries benefit more from trade than high-income ones. A small economy has limited room for trade inside its own borders, so without international trade it has little ability to benefit from comparative advantage or economies of scale, and fewer competing firms. World Bank economists estimated in 2009 that one round of WTO talks alone would make world output up to about one per cent larger, a gain repeated every year, before counting gains that statistics measure badly, such as the transfer of skills and technology.