The same goes for other goods...
For example, it is estimated that at their peak in the early 1980s, quotas on cars imported into the US were transferring $5 billion a year in additional profits to Japanese car makers, who could sell their quota-limited cars at a premium.
Despite this protection, the US car industry continued to lose market share. Foreign producers simply jumped over the trade barrier and began manufacturing cars in the US.
Many other countries have also protected their car industries. In the Republic of Korea, for example, the combination of an 8% tariff and taxes on engine size add about $9000 to the price tag of a $30000 imported car.
...and services. In Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique were among the countries with the highest price drops for telephone, Internet and other forms of communications services in 2008-10. So were Bhutan and Bangladesh in Asia, according to calculations by the international Telecommunications Union (ITU). Recent market opening in least-developed countries is beginning to show dividends.
From 2008 to 2010, internet broadband prices in developing countries declined much more rapidly, by 52%, than in rich countries, at 35%. Today, hardly any countries still allow internet services to be provided under monopoly rights
More broadly, according to ITU data, regions that have liberalized telecoms more slowly and less fully - the Middle East and Africa - show higher average price levels than regions such as Europe, the Americas and Asia, which embraced reform earlier.
And businesses as well as citizens benefit. Price reductions and affordability resulting from market opening around the world mean that telecoms services reach more small and medium-sized enterprises too.