The Impact and Drawbacks of Free Trade

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Determine if the benefits of free trade outweigh the drawbacks, and what could be done to address the drawbacks (if anything) Free trade is a policy by which a government does not discriminate against imports or interfere with exports by applying tariffs, subsidies, or quotes. It allows mutual gains from trade of goods and services. Although there are several advantages of the policy, there are also some disadvantages as well. As stated on page thirty-four of our textbook, these benefits include better access to factors of production, reduced risk, and an inflow of new ideas. Access to factors of production allows the United States to offer plentiful capital and resources that may be less available in other parts of the world. Access to a greater variety of goods and services is the purpose of free trade and helps even out the resource imbalance among other nations. A great example to describe this statement is clothing in America. Nowadays, only a few people in our country sew all of their own clothes, grow all of their food, and only buy items made in their own states. It costs too much and acquires too much time. This is where access to factors of production comes in. One exports so that one can acquire goods and services in return. It makes economic sense to buy a product from another who specializes in such production or who can make it much easier with less cost. Reduced risk: Global trade reduces the dependence on one economy, lowering the economic risk for multinational firms. However, there is a disadvantage of this. As national economies continue to integrate, an economic meltdown in one part of the world can have a major impact. An example of this would be when foreign banks were badly burned by the U.S. subprime market mess, in which we already know how much that hurt our own country. When lowering the economic risk, caution must always be the key.

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