The painful adjustments the United States has been undergoing would still take place even if the economy were kept closed. Since export-oriented industries employ more people and pay higher wages than the declining industries that would be protected, a policy of raising tariffs would lose more jobs and lower more wages than would be gained. This may be cold comfort to those embittered by losing their jobs. But without growth and innovation, we'd all be losing out on benefits that far outweigh those losses. Trade is the real information superhighway.
Open markets speed up the transfer of information and actually cushion the impact of change.
Closed economies delay information about needed change, which guarantees that necessary change will be even more painful. Protectionists often speak of fair trade, but the issue is not what is fair, but what policies will help us to grow and raise people's standard of living in the long run. Economic adaptability is so crucial to a nation's continued development that most economists advocate free trade even if all our trading partners keep their markets closed. Buchanan likes to say that no country, including Britain, developed without protection. Since every country has had trade protection to one degree or another that by no means indicates protection is necessary for development.