Comparative Advantage

David Ricardo agreed with both the ideas of Malthus and Smith. Ricardo strongly argued for free trade. The idea of “cooperative advantage” emerged. The simply says that a nation should produce only the goods it best produces, rather than it producing every necessity. Then the nation will be able to buy the good that it needs for cheaper and

In the Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith talks about international trade and subsequent government policies which became increasingly significant throughout modern history. Protectionism is the term for economic policies of restraining trade between countries when they want to protect their domestic industries from foreign competition. Trades nowadays have different forms and methods and involve more businessmen as well as consumers, which is why trade diplomats are looking to regional agreements. The US experienced two major economic declines during the 20th century, both of which had much to do with international trade. Smith mentioned tariffs in the 18th century, but the role and forms of protectionism have changed across time, so we should know whether the development of economy should actually be correlated with or decided by the political sector of the society and when protectionism will benefit or hurt economy.

 Free Trade: David Ricardo (support free trade)   o Theory of comparative advantage: For two nations without input factor mobility,  specialisation and trade could result in increased total output and lower costs  than if each nation tried to produce in isolation.    Both nations can benefit from trade if each specialises in good that they  have the lowest opportunity cost, even if one economy is more efficient in  making everything.    However, Comparative advantage in not static, and changes over time in  reality.    Also, comparative advantage assumes that factors of production can’t  move between countries  therefore comparative advantage is set to be  outdated

Trade between nations of the world is extremely important in many aspects such as keeping a strong relationship between countries and to hold a good strong trust. It is through trade that

Comparative advantage in economics is when a country can produce a good at a lower opportunity cost relative to other producers. It is because of this theory that output will increase because a producers within a country specializes Countries will gain the ability to maximize their efficiency and their labor force which facilitates mass-production of products, resulting in higher profits and international trade. This is because the economies of scale reduces overall cost, by producing more units. If the two countries moved towards protectionism and attempted to become self-sufficient then the production of goods would then

Which is cost difference determines the patterns of international trade. Absolute advantage is trade benefits when each country is at least cost producer of one of the goods being traded. In the 1800s, David Ricardo developed the theory of comparative advantage to measure gains from trades. This theory is based on comparative advantage and it states each nation should specialize in production of those goods for which its relatively more efficient with a lower opportunity cost.

For decades, there has been many trade barriers to import and export goods from one country to another. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was established to diminish tariff barriers and to remove investment restrictions. NAFTA has broadened the agreement of countries being able to import and export goods and to provide better servicing. Over the period of time, the use of tariffs and any trade barriers have been reduced as the economy has become more integrated. This integration has generated less power for the government to control trade due to the benefit of economic growth. The goal of economic integration is to increase the volume of trade between countries and reduce the

Regional trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) reduced barriers to trade in the form of a cooperative alliance and an elimination of taxes on trade goods between the United States, Canada and Mexico. The influence of this trade agreement was beneficial to businesses because it became easier to trade goods across international borders and it increased the development of standards. The European Union alliance works in a similar way to facilitate trade by standardizing laws and agreements, as well as using a standard currency among all of the countries. The development of these alliances was to increase competitiveness and to decrease inequality. The winners are the larger corporations who have the resources to dominate larger markets. The losers are the small individual and family owned businesses that do not have the same resources to ante up in a global market.

     International trade has been in existence throughout history and has an economic impact on the participating countries. Trade in most countries has a share of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and helps to boost the

The theory of comparative advantage explains the benefit of free trade. According to this theory by David Ricardo in the early 19th century, “Both countries will be better off if each specializes in the industry where it has a comparative advantage, and if the two trade with one another.” (Citation) International trade opens up markets to foreign supplier, and domestic companies need to improve their efficiency, boost productivity, and lower cost to increase competitiveness instead of enjoying monopolies or oligopolies that enabled them to keep prices well above marginal costs. On the other hand, international trade also offers domestic companies bigger demands and broader markets; therefore more jobs relevant to export have been created. Furthermore, jobs in the US supported by goods exports pay 13-18 percent more than the US national average (ustr.gov).

Free trade has long be seen by economists as being essential in promoting effective use of natural resources, employment, reduction of poverty and diversity of products for consumers. But the concept of free trade has had many barriers to over come. Including government practices by developed countries, under public and corporate pressures, to protect domestic firms from cheap foreign products. But as history has shown us time and time again is that protectionist measures imposed by governments has almost always had negative effects on the local and world economies. These protectionist measures also hurt developing countries trying to inter into the international trade markets.

Globalization has become one of the most influential forces in the twentieth century. International integration of world views, products, trade and ideas has caused a variety of states to blur the lines of their borders and be open to an international perspective. The merger of the Europeans Union, the ASEAN group in the Pacific and NAFTA in North America is reflective of the notion of globalized trade. The North American Free Trade Agreement was the largest free trade zone in the world at its conception and set an example for the future of liberalized trade. The North American Free Trade Agreement is coming into it's twentieth anniversary on January 1st, 2014. 1 NAFTA not only sought to enhance the trade of goods and services across

David Ricardo is a well-known economist who found it hard to make his big break in the field of economics. He created the “Theory of Comparative Advantage”, or free international trade. His ideas he had were hard for people to grasp, and understand at the time, and even today. Over his career, he encountered some struggles, but he kept doing what he thought was right, and fair, and in the end he was successful.

Ever since the first involvement of government in international trade, many people have posed their opinion about what the role of government should be in it. Different factors are involved when it comes to deciding what this should be. It impacts a lot of people, so in order to do that, trade policy must be properly defined, identify what the roles of government currently are, and their involvement in it, and then analyse what should be their role. Trade policy is how a country carries out trade with other countries (Commercial Policy, n.d). Even though a lot of people support government intervention in international trade, countries would benefit a lot more if the government removes protectionism and promotes free trade instead.

Comparative advantage is a principle developed by David Ricardo in the early 19th century to explain the benefits of mutual trade (Carbaugh, 2008). Many underlying assumptions of comparative advantage depend on states of economic equilibrium and an absence of economy of scale. In reality, economies are dynamic and subject to innovation and interference; which has led to revised assumptions of return and competition (Krugman, 1987). These factors have created questions of free trade and governmental participation in an economy by the development of strategic trade policies. These new concepts do not replace the theory of comparative advantage; however, they further explain how trade can benefit a country's economy (Krugman, 1987).