This paper explores how trade integration influences the decision by national governments to bailout manufacturing firms. We develop a 2-country model of generalized oligopoly with heterogenous firms and trade costs. High-cost firms are eligible for a bailout while low-cost firms are profitable. Our results show that trade liberalization influences both political benefits of a bailout and its relative cost as compared to a laissez-faire policy. If the fall in trade cost is so large that it allows high-cost firms to become exporters, governments might move away from a bailout policy to a laissez-faire policy. In contrast, a marginal decline in trade costs that does not affect the export status of high-cost firms, always makes governments more prone to adopt a bailout decision.
