With most of these free trade agreements the trade between countries still ends up being more free than it was before the agreement. Insisting on free trade agreements to be perfect hinders free trade and leads to protectionism. We should fight for less managed free trade deals, but at the end of the day even managed free trade deals are better than not having free trade at all.
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- Thread starter CheezItsRule
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With most of these free trade agreements the trade between countries still ends up being more free than it was before the agreement. Insisting on free trade agreements to be perfect hinders free trade and leads to protectionism. We should fight for less managed free trade deals, but at the end of the day even managed free trade deals are better than not having free trade at all.
sailingaway
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Then you need to use different terms. If you can say an agreement will be less managed trade, that is better than more managed trade, but it is not free trade. And some things, the whole 'trusted trading partner' thing, is set up precisely to give the well connected the only avenue to benefits of trade.
The main thing is that where cronies get benefits and where ordinary people are cut out, makes these agreements only of benefit to SOME and of cost to all, typically. They need to be examined on relative merits of actual proposed agreements, not by the words 'free trade' being inserted into their titles.
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