There is no fixed number of jobs over which countries need to fight because increasing prosperity in one country creates more in both. Following NAFTA, the number of jobs increased in Mexico and the United States by the millions: international trade had increased for both countries, especially in those goods covered by NAFTA.

A nation’s wealth consists of its goods and services, and the population are made wealthier, not poorer, by an increased number of goods and services. The increased wealth is regardless of whether there is a “deficit” or “surplus” in the international trade balance.

Sometimes politicians say that a country with an export surplus (exports exceed imports) has a “favourable trade balance”. The total amount of trade is what we should care about because it meaningfully impacts a country’s wealth. Any reductions in international trade to “balance” exports and imports harm the nation.