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Free Vs. Fair Trade

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Free vs. Fair Trade 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)? Trade representatives in favor of the free trade agreement claim that one of the largest U.S. beneficiaries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership is agriculture. There are some who believe that the sole way to keep U.S. agricultural trade flowing while a maintaining competitive foothold is by reducing or elimination tariffs altogether, resulting in cheaper production and therefor costing the consumer less. And this is precisely what the TPP is set to undertake. I, and important people in the Ag industry, such as the National Farmers Union , an organization founded to help small farmers and advocate grassroots-driven policy, argue that a reduction in sticker price for the sole purpose of keeping the upper hand is a misuse of valuable policy and does nothing to halt the increasingly extreme sacrifices that fall hard on small farmers and

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