There are downsides, but keep them in perspective. Pollsters find that public support for free trade actually goes up when people are given credible bad news about its impact. The reason is the bad news is generally not as awful as they thought. Trade does cost jobs, but it is not the leading factor in job loss in America - technology creates and destroys far more jobs than trade. Plant closures are splashy but collectively account for only a tiny part of unemployment.
Exports create excellent jobs and more stable businesses.
Careful research by Carnegie Mellon University reveals that exporters are more productive, pay better wages and benefits, and invest more in training than their non-exporting counterparts. In truth, most were doing this before they started exporting. Exporting is what healthy firms do. But the act of exporting does, by itself, seem to confer a longer life on the firm, and faster employment growth - effects that are just as important to the community as they are to the employer. Free trade is a return on decades of American investment.