Editing Free trade (section)

=== Economist opinions ===
The literature analyzing the economics of free trade is rich. Economists have done extensive work on the theoretical and empirical effects of free trade. Although it creates winners and losers, the broad consensus among economists is that free trade provides a net gain for society.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Fuller|first1=Dan|last2=Geide-Stevenson|first2=Doris|title=Consensus Among Economists: Revisited|journal=Journal of Economic Review|volume=34|issue=4|pages=369–387|date=Fall 2003|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~econed/pdffiles/fall03/fuller.pdf|doi=10.1080/00220480309595230|s2cid=143617926|access-date=2007-01-22|archive-date=2004-09-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040920081202/http://www.indiana.edu/~econed/pdffiles/fall03/fuller.pdf|url-status=dead}}{{registration required}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Friedman|first=Milton|author-link=Milton Friedman|title=The Case for Free Trade|journal=[[Hoover Digest]]|volume=1997|issue=4|pages=42–49|url=http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3550727.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070122032127/http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3550727.html|archive-date=22 January 2007|bibcode=1993SciAm.269e..42B|year=1993|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican1193-42}}</ref> In a 2006 survey of American economists (83 responders), "87.5% agree that the U.S. should eliminate remaining tariffs and other barriers to trade" and "90.1% disagree with the suggestion that the U.S. should restrict employers from outsourcing work to foreign countries".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Whaples|first=Robert|title=Do Economists Agree on Anything? Yes!|journal=The Economists' Voice|volume=3|issue=9|year=2006|doi=10.2202/1553-3832.1156|s2cid=201123406}}</ref>

Quoting Harvard economics professor [[N. Gregory Mankiw]], "Few propositions command as much consensus among professional economists as that open world trade increases economic growth and raises living standards".<ref>{{cite web|last=Mankiw|first=Gregory|title=Outsourcing Redux|date=7 May 2006|url=http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/05/outsourcing-redux.html|access-date=22 January 2007}}</ref> In a survey of leading economists, none disagreed with the notion that "freer trade improves productive efficiency and offers consumers better choices, and in the long run these gains are much larger than any effects on employment".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_0dfr9yjnDcLh17m|title=Poll Results|publisher=IGM Forum|access-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160622104941/http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_0dfr9yjnDcLh17m|archive-date=22 June 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Paul Krugman]] stated that free trade is greatly beneficial to the world as a whole, and especially beneficial to people in poorer nations, since it allows them to increase their standards of living.{{ r | Krugman_2007 }}  He also stated in 2007 that, as the US trades more with less-industrialized countries whose workers are paid less than equivalent US workers (2007 wages in Mexico were 1/10 what they were in the US, and in China less than 1/20), increased trade with those countries will put downward pressure on unskilled labor rates in the US.<ref name="Krugman_2007">{{cite news |author=Paul Krugman |date=December 12, 2007 |title=The Trouble with Trade |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/28/opinion/28krugman.html}}</ref>