Free Trade
Category: Business, Economics, Finance
Proponents of free trade forget one crucial assumption. Free trade works only when everyone involved in the trade behaves responsibly. And that means accepting the philosophy of free trade in letter and spirit. In theory, free trade is great! But in practice, it falls far short of its ideals. USA, arguably the world’s greatest proponent of free trade and the WTO, only wants to play by the rules it forces onto others when it feels like it. If WTO rules would ever not be advantageous to the United States, the government will cook up some scheme to make an end run around them. The tariffs on steel imports to USA and subsidies to US agriculture are case in point here. I don’t believe they are alone in this, but as the world’s greatest economic power and greatest advocate of free trade, the violations and hypocrisy seem particularly egregious.
Free trade works great in theory but not in practice. Its a ‘tragedy of commons’ all over again.
Free trade works great in theory but not in practice. Its a ‘tragedy of commons’ all over again.