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.

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:

Two of the well-known theories are absolute advantage and comparative advantage theory. Absolute advantage trade theory is when the producer is able to input a small amount to produce a good or service. It is also recognized to attain better through the acts of low-cost production. By this I mean, an example of absolute advantage is when a small country like China manufacture or produce a good and participate in the ability to have low labor cost on that item. Meanwhile, comparative advantage is the action of a country being able to produce or manufacture a good/service at a lower cost than another country. When having the theory of comparative advantage country that produces an item has an advantage over the company that has a desire for that specific item. Their ability to produce the item locally gives them a cheaper source of the ingredient causing them to offer their product cheaper than other companies. The Trans-Pacific Pacific Partnership is an agreement that has threatened to extend restrictive intellectual property laws across the world and rewrite international rules on its enforcement. Countries involved in the TPP are Australia, Peru, Japan, Canada, Vietnam, Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Mexico. Basically, all the countries along the Pacific Ocean signed the agreement on February 4, 2016. The trade agreement is said to makes trading easier, adds intellectual property protection, and raises labor environmental standards in all countries involved, but there is no set person to write the rules and regulations to the agreement along with no one to make sure they are enforced. If the U.S doesn’t ratify the agreement, China can step in and continue to dominate and control the market. I believe if done right TPP can bring world domination for all countries to work together in creating one huge market to live by. Regional trading groups are

Free trade provides opportunity, it provides growth, and it provides struggling nations a chance. With free trade, markets open across national borders and the consumer ultimately benefits from higher quality goods at fair market prices. The producers of such goods now have larger markets to sell to allowing for the opportunity at increased sales, giving the consumer a greater variety of goods that can more individually meet specific demands. Free trade implementation to the United States foreign policy is a developing and revolutionary mindset that will bring prosperity to all parties involved. The United States will benefit from free trade because the market to purchase U.S. made goods and services will increase dramatically

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.

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

International trade is believed by economists to be good for both countries involved. It promotes financial and economic growth throughout the world. It creates jobs, sustains economies, improves standards of living, promotes competition, lowers prices, and strengthens the bond between nations. In 2012, approximately 4.9 million people were directly or indirectly holding jobs that were associated with the production of goods and services sold to other countries (cite). Many of these jobs are manufacturing jobs that produce large amounts of products to sell to other countries. This is called an export. Export sales help maintain high levels of employment by breaking down barriers of unfair taxes. With opportunity to buy product from other countries, prices remain competitive.

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.

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

For instance, negotiators are working to set up rules on intellectual property rights, government procurement and the role of the state in private enterprise.” (LA times) The agreement spans more than 10 countries including the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Canada, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and of course Mexico. The combined value of these countries represents almost 25 percent of the world’s trade and 45 percent of the world’s GDP (DePilis). Mexico has a lot to benefit by joining such a large free-trade pact and it isn‘t just the economic gains a US$180 billion TPP market.”(east asia). The benefits will not only be in monetary value but also in exposure to new markets all around the globe, which lead to benefits in many different areas “It will allow them be present in the Asia-Pacific region with preferential access to a market representing a potential market of 198 million consumers, without including NAFTA countries. It is an agreement that not only opens markets for them, but also will create long-term synergies and additional benefits such as taking advantage of the economic cycles of Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam which are in turn related with the economies of China and India. There are studies that predict that the economic benefits of this integration could be reflected by

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

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

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.

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)?

”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