Publics around the world broadly accept the premise that trade is good for their society. Across the 27 nations surveyed, a median of 85% say growing trade and business ties with other countries is a good thing for their nation, with no major distinction between views in advanced economies and emerging markets. This includes at least nine-in-ten adults in the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, South Korea and Kenya. The least supportive are Argentine adults, and even among them more than half see trade as good. There has been a significant decline in Argentine belief that trade is good, down 18 percentage points since 2010. But in most countries pro-trade sentiment is largely unchanged.

In only a handful of countries have views of trade changed significantly over the past four years. Belief that trade is beneficial for the country has gone up 10 points in France and 9 points in Indonesia. And such views are down 14 points in Argentina and 12 points in Tunisia.