5 Consistent with these perceptions, some Europeans say they see the US as a difficult trade partner. 6 Americans are equally confident that the US is more open than Europe. Clearly, the perceptions of both sides are strikingly symmetrical and are a classic case of a mirror image. In the current poll, PIPA took a slightly different approach, but also found that Americans view other countries as less committed to open trade. Europeans also are more apt to believe that their own country follows a free trade policy than that the US does.
Some countries favor free trade to promote economic growth and lower prices for consumers.
Other countries favor restrictions on free trade in order to protect their own products and jobs from foreign competition. Although there is no comparable data on the European side, Americans have shown a strong readiness to further open their markets to European products on a reciprocal basis, even though they perceive that Europeans have lower labor standards. While large majorities in all countries believe importing products means at least some loss of jobs, this belief is somewhat stronger in the US than in Europe. Both Europeans and Americans tend to put a higher priority on the preservation of jobs than on the benefit of lower prices that comes with trade. Like Americans, Europeans show resistance to opening their markets to goods from low-wage countries.