Quite recent and glaring counterexample - where Greece was pretty much crushed economically by Germany (&quot;open&quot; trade coupled with fixed exchange rates meant enormous trade deficit)<p>While obviously in most cases less barriers to trade means growth for everybody, there are cases where completely opening to trade is bad - it might mean total dependence on foreign products - simply thanks to economies of scale and entrenchment.
For example in Poland homegrown producents of buses&#x2F;trams&#x2F;trains were finally given precedence and within few years they managed to produce cheaper (massively so) and just as good if not better products, jobs and know-how that will last and be a boon as opposed to being hooked on foreign maintenance contracts.<p>So right now we are all for free trade, since those products are actually massively competitive :3