Buoyed and battered by globalization, people around the world strongly view international trade as a good thing but harbor growing concerns about its side effects: threats to cultures, environmental damage and immigration, a new survey indicates.
In the Pew Global Attitudes Project survey of people in 46 countries and the Palestinian territories, large majorities everywhere said trade was a good thing. In countries like Argentina, which recently experienced trade-based growth, the attitude toward trade has become more positive.
But support for trade has decreased in recent years in advanced Western countries, including Germany, Britain, France and Italy — and most sharply in the United States. The number of Americans saying trade is good for the country has dropped 19 percentage points since 2002, to 59 percent.
More than 45,000 adults were surveyed. The margins of error ranged from plus or minus 2 to 4 percentage points.
The survey found that immigration concerns remained widespread, with large majorities in nearly every country favoring tougher restrictions.