What are the implications of these reduced trade barriers for estimates of price elasticity of demand? Free trade results in an effective increase in the number of substitute goods that are available to consumers and businesses in any country. Consequently, as barriers to free trade come down, demand will become more price elastic for goods that historically have not been able to flow easily between countries. Nestlé’s yogurt and custard products now travel from manufacturing sites in the British Midlands to Milan, Italy, in 17 hours, whereas the customs processing and transportation bottlenecks once required 38 hours. Similarly, iron forging of crankshafts and engine blocks for U.S. autos now occurs primarily in Mexico, and transmissions for Detroit are often constructed as subassemblies in Japan. The winners in this globalization process should be consumers, who will have a wider variety of products to choose from at ever more competitive prices. The losers will be those firms that cannot compete in a global market on the basis of cost, quality, and service.