Actually, free trade tends to benefit the poor more than the rich. When restrictions on trade are removed by government, the price of goods tends to fall. Since the poor spend most of their income on basic goods, such as food, water, and medicines, lower prices for such goods means the poor have more surplus income.

By contrast, in most poor countries the governing elite benefit from restrictions on trade, which enable them to sell goods and services of low quality at high prices. The removal of such restrictions would harm the elite because they would then have to compete with higher quality, lower cost imported goods and services.