I don&#x27;t think that anybody ever claimed that free trade was going to be a Pareto improvement[1].  It is going to nearly always be a Kaldor-Hicks[2] improvement, though, which means you <i>can</i> make everybody better off by doing free trade then taxing the free trade winners and giving the money to the free trade losers.<p>[1]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Pareto_efficiency" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Pareto_efficiency</a><p>[2]<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Kaldor%E2%80%93Hicks_efficiency" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Kaldor%E2%80%93Hicks_efficienc...</a>