In: Economics
When a country opens itself up for trade, there are winners and losers. Potentially, the winners can compensate the losers so that everyone benfits from international trade.
Trade between countries leads to expansion in the varieties of goods and services available for the consumers in both countries. It allows the countries to enjoy a higher total output and level of consumption than what would have been possible domestically. Trade also lets you specialize i.e. instead of producing all goods domestically, a country can focus on producing only those goods in which it has a comparative advantage and can import the other goods from the rest of the world. This helps in efficient utilization of resources and lets countries decide on an optimal bundle of goods where it has the lowest opportunity cost. Once a country opens up, the goods where it has a comparative advantage can be exported. Hence, it would be beneficial for some groups. However, other groups and industries might face unfair competition from global firms which are more competitive than domestic firms. These domestic firms can then ask for protection from the government to increase their competitiveness and come to a level where they can compete at a global level.
If the potential gainers from trade, distribute the gains of trade in such a way that the losers from trade also get sufficient compensation, then international trade can potentially make everyone one better off.