Trade liberalization increases a country’s wealth overall and reduces tariffs that burden the poor.

• The World Bank estimates that eliminating trade barriers could lift as many as 300 million people out of poverty by 2015 and that global poverty could be cut in half if rich countries lowered trade barriers and increased foreign aid and poor countries invested more in the health and education of their citizens.
• Increased trade increases the wealth of countries as wholes, allowing governments to allocate more resources to antipoverty and other social programs.
• Free trade in all goods, including agricultural products, would result in a world income gain of $832 billion, of which $539 billion would go to developing countries.
• Developed countries provide assistance to developing countries that liberalize trade. The United States, for example, offers developing countries capacity-building assistance and preferential market access in trade agreements.

Trade liberalization offers important opportunities for economic growth and poverty reduction.

• Increased trade raises average incomes and reduces tariffs, resulting in more affordable and available basic consumer goods, such as food and medicine.
• Free trade leads to economic growth, including increased employment and real wages. Trade liberalization has a positive overall effect on the employment and income of the poor.
• Trade liberalization facilitates the exchange of necessary technologies, such as water and food sanitation. New trade opportunities in Lesotho, for example, led to more than $120 million in new investment.