free trade

Examples of free trade in the following topics:

• Global Trade: Inequalities and Conflict

  • Global trade (exchange across international borders) has increased with better transportation and governments adopting free trade.
  • The United States is party to many trade agreements, but one of the best known is the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
  • Like other free trade agreements, NAFTA promotes free trade among members, which include the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
  • Most countries are also members of regional free trade areas that lower trade barriers among participating countries.
  • Analyze the impact of global trade on society and industry, ranging from mercantilism to free trade orientation

• Trade Blocs and Common Markets

  • A trade bloc is an agreement where regional barriers to trade are reduced or eliminated among the participating states.
  • The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is an example of a formal trade bloc.
  • Trade blocs can be stand-alone agreements between several states, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or part of a regional organization, such as the European Union.
  • A single market is a type of trade bloc that is composed of a free trade area for goods, with common policies on product regulation, as well as freedom of movement on capital, labor, enterprise, and services.
  • A common market is a first stage towards a single market, and may be limited initially to a free trade area with relatively free movement of capital and of services, but not so advanced in reduction of the rest of the trade barriers.

• Hunger, Malnutrition, and Family

  • Critics of the role of free trade in food distribution have used agricultural regions of Mexico as an example of its negative effects in some areas, Mexican farm workers live in hunger and suffer from malnutrition, while the crops they produce are exported to wealthy markets in the United States and Europe, which are more profitable for landowners.
  • Critics of the role of free trade in food distribution have used agricultural regions of Mexico as an example of its negative effects -- in some areas, Mexican farmworkers live in hunger and suffer from malnutrition while the crops they produce are exported to wealthy markets in the U.S. and Europe, which are more profitable for landowners.
  • Some organizations raise the issue of food sovereignty and claim that every country on earth (with the possible minor exceptions of some city-states) has sufficient agricultural capacity to feed its own people, but that the free trade economic order prevents this from happening.
  • These advocates argue that free trade policies transfer economic decision-making power into the hands of multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and transnational corporations, so that local people are unable to determine what is done with food that is locally produced.

• Mexico's Economy

  • Some social scientists have found that poorly-compensated Mexican farm laborers are made to work under potentially unsafe conditions to meet the demand for produce in wealthier trading nations, such as the United States.
  • If substantiated, this would be evidence that international trade has not improved the standard of living for all Mexicans..
  • Trade liberalization continued after that, with several free trade agreements with Latin American and European countries, Japan, and Israel signed during former President Vincente Fox's leadership (2000-2006).
  • Thus, Mexico became one of the most open countries in the world to trade, and the economic base shifted accordingly to exports and imports .
  • Since liberalizing its trade policies beginning in the 1980s, Mexico has entered into Free Trade Agreements with many countries.

• Deindustrialization

  • But after free-trade agreements were instituted with less developed nations in the 1980s and 1990s, Detroit-based manufacturers relocated their production facilities to countries where wages were lower.
  • This process is often attributed to off-shoring, which is itself a consequence of increased global free trade.

• Colonialism and Neocolonialism

  • Modern colonialism started with the Age of Discovery, during which Portugal and Spain discovered new lands across the oceans (including the Americas and Atlantic/South Pacific islands) and built trading posts.
  • Specifically, neocolonialism refers to the theory that former or existing economic relationships—the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement—are used to maintain control of former colonies after formal independence was achieved.
  • This theory argues that countries have developed at an uneven rate because wealthy countries have exploited poor countries in the past and today through foreign debt and foreign trade.

• Disinvestment and Deindustrialization

  • Third, deindustrialization can be marked by a balance of trade deficit, or a situation in which a country imports more manufactured products than it exports.
  • Finally, deindustrialization can be observed when a nation's balance of trade deficit is so sustained that the country is unable to pay for the necessary imports of materials needed to further produce goods, initiating a downward spiral of economic decline.
  • After free-trade agreements were instituted with less-developed nations in the 1980s and 1990s, Detroit-based auto manufacturers relocated their production facilities to other countries with lower wages and work standards.

• Preindustrial Cities

  • While ancient cities may have arisen organically as trading centers, preindustrial cities evolved to become well defined political units, like today's states.
  • City residence brought freedom from customary rural obligations to lord and community (hence the German saying, "Stadtluft macht frei," which means "City air makes you free").
  • Those that did often benefited from trade routes—in the early modern era, larger capital cities benefited from new trade routes and grew even larger.
  • While the city-states, or poleis, of the Mediterranean and Baltic Sea languished from the 16th century, Europe's larger capitals benefited from the growth of commerce following the emergence of an Atlantic trade.
  • Examine the growth of preindustrial cities as political units, as well as how trade routes allowed certain cities to expand and grow

• Citizenship Rights

  • Citizens have the right to free speech and freedom of assembly, for example, but they also have the responsibility to follow the laws of the land and to pay taxes.
  • Citizens have the right to free speech and freedom of assembly, for example, but they also have the responsibility to follow the laws of the land and to pay taxes.
  • Certain entities, however, cross national boundaries, such as trade organizations, non-governmental organizations, and multi-national corporations, and sometimes the term "citizen of the world" has been applied in to people who have fewer ties to a particular nation and more of a sense of belonging to the world in general.

• The Status of Women in Mexico

  • Some social scientists have found that poorly-compensated Mexican farm laborers are made to work under potentially unsafe conditions to meet the demand for produce in wealthier trading nations, such as the United States.
  • If substantiated, this would be evidence that international trade has not improved the standard of living for all Mexicans.
  • Some social scientists have found that poorly-compensated Mexican farm laborers are made to work under potentially unsafe conditions to meet the demand for produce in wealthier trading nations, such as the United States.
  • If substantiated, this would be evidence that international trade has not improved the standard of living for all Mexicans.
  • Similarly, many critics claim that while the NAFTA agreement proved effective in increasing Mexico's economic performance, foreign trade policies have not done enough to promote social advancement and reduce poverty.