There is a vast empirical literature which finds a positive correlation between economic growth and various measures of openness to international trade in the post-1945 period. Despite intense methodological bickering amongst researchers, nonetheless maybe50studies (maybe more?), using a variety of methods and approaches, come to the same conclusion: trade openness was associated with growth after 1945. (This amazing criticalreview paper lists most of those studies.)
This huge body of research does have some quite compelling critics, the most prominent being Rodríguez & Rodrik (2000). That widely cited paper argues — amongst many other things — that there is no necessary relationship between trade and growth, either way. It depends on the global context as well as domestic economic conditions. I think that view is correct.
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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