Because of deregulation, increased innovation, and lower barriers to trade and investment, crossborder trade in recent decades has been expanding at a far faster pace than GDP. As a result, many economies are increasingly exposed to the rigors of international competition and comparative advantage.
In the process, lower prices for some goods and services produced by our trading partners have competitively suppressed domestic price pressures. Production of traded goods and services has expanded rapidly in economies with large, low-wage labor forces.