Free Trade for Change?

I would like to answer the question posed by group 3 in this week's class: can free trade cause a fundamental change in the international system? The concept of fundamental change has been discussed in this class already. I tend towards the realist perspective that without some cataclysmic change to the international, fundamental change isn't possible. However, there is room for substantial changes within the international system, and this is where free trade has a foothold.

Many diverse countries have chosen to liberalize unilaterally their trade policies, like Mexico, India, Poland, Ghana, and Spain. The General Agreements on Tariffs and Trade, Uruguay Round, further liberalized trade among many developed countries and between them and developing ones. While free trade seems to be the sound economical move, countries have been slow to come to terms with or it or even fully integrate. They still seek some form of protectionism. The idea of free trade though came about from a desire to end or reduce protectionism or barriers to trade.

Free trade can not create fundamental change because it serves to uphold the fundamental design of our international system. Free trade is used to perpetuate diplomatic endeavors or reinforce certain world power's agendas. Promotion of trade is used to further economic diplomacy and ultimately political security. The critique is, though, that free trade fails to make everyone a winner, some will lose. Domestic trade at times is hindered by free trade, it hurts the common people. The issue is more that it tends to be government mandated versus the ideal free trade.

Comments

  1. EHJuly 25, 2018 at 9:12 PM

    I certainly agree that free trade is a slippery eel to quantify in terms of its drawbacks and benefits. I also struggle sometimes to put myself in the shoes of the developing world who are simultaneously eager to reap the benefits available in a free-trade economy, but are also wary of the enormous setbacks that a market change could bring to their domestic economy. Do you think that governmental controls on free trade (tariffs, import taxes, etc) ultimately hinder these developing economies, or ever developed economies? Or do you think there is a case to be made for instituting these regulations that usually maintain the stability of individual nations? I ask, because in our interconnected economic environment, the fall of one can lead to the fall of many.

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  2. AnonymousAugust 8, 2018 at 2:44 PM

    Related to the idea of the hegemonic power, of the Western system as a whole. Free trade entrenches the winners, allowing those countries that are larger and more powerful to dictate their own deals. It's like when Walmart buys a product and says, if you don't sell at our price, you'll go bankrupt because no one will carry your product. Economic change has opportunities, but it is hard to imagine those opportunities manifesting into reality. Even something like cryptocurrency, unregulated and working outside the international system faces scrutiny and eventually will succumb to the great powers as they work to crush it or absorb it into their toolbox.

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