In fact, the World Bank and World Economic Forum estimate that the elimination of non-tariff barriers, such as inefficient logistic systems or transportation and administrative costs that inhibit the international fragmentation of production, could result in an increase in global GDP that would be six times greater than the direct elimination of the remaining tariff barriers in international trade.7 It should be noted that in a context in which production takes place along global value chains and trade is dominated by intermediate goods, the fact that a country has a trade deficit against another country, overall or in a given sector, does not necessarily mean that it is losing employment or that it has a lower welfare level.
In fact, this deficit may reflect imports of intermediate goods that are necessary for domestic production to take place and which usually contributes to increased domestic employment, consumption and exports. In this regard, the more efficient organization of the production process that has been achieved through trade integration has also resulted in increased employment in the NAFTA region.