Should Free Trade Be Allowed?

In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was enacted between two industrial countries and a yet still developing nation. This was an agreement that was the first of its kind due to the relationship that the countries had and the investment opportunities that it presented. The United States, Canada, and developing Mexico decided to work towards eliminating most tariffs and non-tariff barriers between the three in order to increase the flow of trade in goods and services. Since its enactment NAFTA has led to the providing of over 40 million more jobs throughout the countries, and it has also tripled merchandise trade between the three participants to an astounding $946 billion USD in 2008 (NAFTA Now). However even then it is still not very clear whether enacting NAFTA was worth the time and effort and in fact the United States may have been better off not having joined NAFTA.

Trans-Pacific partnership opens a new free market field with minimal trade restrictions. Members are expected to conduct trade within the jurisdictions of the member states with much

These export trade agreements, in the next two decades, will create thousands of available jobs, and also boost the GDP by approximately $25 billion, which benefits consumers, households and economic growth. There are several strategies under the new trade agreement that targets partnership and bring benefits:

Free trade agreements are in force all over the world today. A free trade agreement is an “agreement between two or more countries where the countries agree on certain obligations that affect trade in goods and services, and protections for investors and intellectual property rights, among other topics” (www.naftanow.org, 2013). These agreements are essential for the countries if they want to trade goods and services with each other without having to be bothered with each other’s laws and regulations.

Many Americans are against outsourcing. Outsourcing leads to many Americans unemployed and unable to find a job. When a company decides to outsource they must lay off current employees, this causes a huge impact on the community. Many people in one area are then looking for jobs. When the people are unable to find a job they will have to focus their income on needed essentials. Even if outsourcing causes prices to be lower, without a job Americans won’t be able to buy those products.

There are three reasons in particular why free trade agreements aid in society. Free Trade agreements increase Australia’s productivity, add attractiveness to Australia’s investment destination, and give Australia more trading opportunities

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is a free-trade agreement between 44 different countries controlling 40% of the world’s economic output. It spans over 4 continents, comprising of 800 million people, and $28.5 trillion of combined gross domestic product between the 12-pact countries. The TPPA is the world’s largest free-trade agreement to ever exist. This partnership agreement achieves its power by implementing new rules and regulations in their attempt to improve the global economy. However, if the agreement is passed, the new laws introduced will negatively impact the Canadian economy because it strips away basic human rights and needs or make them harder to obtain by restraining government powers. The 6000-page contract targets government

While many see free trade beneficial not only to America, but to all nations as well, others would argue that the entire concept of free trade is now a major misconception. What has become commonplace in the U.S. economy is now “tradition” enough to discourage the very thought of disagreeing with free trade. The incorporation of this government deal has long since been a part of history, making it hard for one to plea the case of operating otherwise. Whether viewed as good or bad, analyzing and recognizing the various factors of free trade only serves as a fundamental measure in strengthening the argument.

It is commonly believed that free trade between nations is a mutually beneficial arrangement for all parties involved; indeed, this is held to be an absolute truth. Though free trade is undoubtedly the most effective form of commerce between countries from a purely economic standpoint, increasingly we find that our so-called "free trade agreements" are horribly unbalanced. Indicative of these fiascoes is the North American

While free trade could potentially mean a lot of benefits, its superiority over protectionism is strictly theoretical, under the conditions that you disregard all the unique conditions of each country involved, and the possibility of exploitation of workers, resources and legal loopholes by large corporations. Realistically industries will be monopolized by whichever country that does it cheapest, thus making any competition in that industry from the other countries extremely unprofitable and unsustainable. Each country would only be able to focus on sectors that they have a comparative advantage in, while the other industries would stagnate, laying off masses of workers, causing high unemployment rates in the country. Furthermore, businesses are focused on their own profit so they’ll go for labour wherever it’s cheapest, which increases income disparity. Theoretically, free trade can bring about the largest amount of trade and aggregate wealth for everyone by making each country specialize in what it has an advantage in, to produce more for less, lowering the market prices to be more affordable, greatly boosting trade, and raising quality of life. Essentially free trade aims to maximize income for each country under the contemporary conditions. However even if everything miraculously goes as planned and that hypothetical situation is reached, even under these perfect conditions free trade will allow no further development of industry.

Being the world 's largest economy, the United States is also largest exporter and importer of goods and services. American economic growth relies heavily on trade. According to a recent report on NAFTA, “Since 1992, nearly 20 million new jobs have been created in the U.S., in part due to the 1994 NAFTA agreement. Total trade between the NAFTA partners -- the U.S., Canada, and Mexico -- rose from $293 billion in 1993 to more than $475 billion in 1997, and has increased since. ” (Bowman, Free Trade). It is obvious evidence that international trade is beneficial to the US economy, at least in the 1990s.

”Free trade policies have created a level of competition in today's open market that engenders continual innovation and leads to better products, better-paying jobs, new markets, and increased savings and investment” (Denise Froning). Though Free trade plays a huge role in the economy today because of what and where it is used. Free trade allows for traders to trade across national boundaries and other countries without government interference. Meaning that traders have very few regulations that allow for them to do this without the government intervening. Free trade makes things for traders much easier and also allows for many more jobs in the US, such as exporting jobs, or jobs in the auto industry and plants. Though there are many

On January 23, 2017, Trump fulfilled his campaign promise by pulling America out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is a free trade agreement between the US and 11 other Pacific Rim states reached under the Obama administration. Trump stated that he did a "great thing for the American worker." (Bradner) When Trump was on the presidential campaign trail, 54% of Americans answered “much more likely” or “somewhat more likely” to the question "would you be more likely or less likely to vote for a candidate for President who promises to put a stop to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and enact trade policies that put U.S. jobs first" in the Caddell & Associates poll conducted from February to March 2016. (Ballotpedia) Nevertheless, in the

Trade opens up a whole new playing field of economic benefits and international relationships, and greatly impacts the marketplace. Lately, trade has taken a seat in the spotlight as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a major free trade agreement spanning a dozen countries, was signed in February 2016 after seven years of negotiations. Implementation of the TPP agreement is not yet underway, but the impacts of such a deal have already created an insatiable buzz of debate. How will the TPP impact the United States economy, particularly when bearing in mind the $45.6 billion trade deficit we are already facing (Trading Economics)?

The argument has been made that free trade is the path that should and will be taken to improve the world economy for all. Through it States will be able to better allocate resources, labor, and goods. This sentiment, however, is not shared my all. A major opponent of free trade is Ian Fletcher. His argument against free trade is sound, however through other readings, especially Moonhawk Kim’s on the GATT/WTO, it can be seen that the theory of free trade is still evolving at the international level and that by sticking with it and having States being willing to work with each other it will end up being able to accomplish all that it is theorized to do.