Does foreign trade discourage monopolies?

The obvious answer is yes by the not so obvious answer is no.

Foreign trade increases competition undoubtedly. There is more efficiency in production, lower prices, better products due to introduction of newer technology. So there is a clear case for foreign trade to exist as well as flourish.

But one other part is also that the monopolies are no more restricted to one country but are global. That's the not so obvious part of my answer. There are sectors in India where foreign companies dominate. Not only in India but globally.

Google, Microsoft, Samsung, LG, HUL etc etc and the list goes on. They have the first mover advantage and also enough capital to create global monopolies.

So the other part of globalization and foreign trade is that many a times, indigenous companies are unable to grow esp in developing countries as they never had the capital to become scalable and by the time they could…it was too late. Protection is a curse and has always been as it inhibits innovation and doesn't benefit the consumer. But in sectors where comparative advantage does not exist for a country, there is merit in analysis whether it never can or is it lack of opportunity and protection that is inhibiting an advantage that might surpass the existing ones.