What are the primary pros and cons of free trade or fair trade in the current Sino-American quagmire?

Jonah Whanau

2018-05-02 06:32:00 Wed ET

What are the primary pros and cons of free trade or fair trade in the current Sino-American quagmire? Free trade means allowing goods and services to move as freely as possible across different countries. As countries develop over time, they start swapping goods and services across national borders.  As transport improves in speed and quality, these countries start buying and selling goods and services abroad. When governments struggle to raise domestic taxes, it is easier to carry out the fair trade policy of levying heavy duties on foreign imports. Most economists eventually gain the upper hand because keeping these trade barriers as low as possible proves to be a sensible economic policy.

In accordance with the law of comparative advantage, free trade allows countries and corporations to specialize in intermediate production, service provision, or new tech innovation. Further, free trade expands the size of the economic pie and thus shifts scare resources from the less productive firms to the productive ones.

However, not everyone becomes better off. Some receive a smaller slice of the pie because product market concentration and dominance can exacerbate economic inequality. Free trade enhances the political discourse of peace and cooperation. It is important for the government to improve affordable residential real estate and labor mobility to counterbalance the exogenous shocks from fair trade barriers.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

Paulson, Geithner, and Bernanke warn that people seem to have forgotten the lessons of the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009.

Daphne Basel

2018-07-17 08:35:00 Tuesday ET

Paulson, Geithner, and Bernanke warn that people seem to have forgotten the lessons of the global financial crisis from 2008 to 2009.

Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner (former Treasury heads) and Ben Bernanke (former Fed chairman) warn that people seem to have forgotten the lessons of the

+See More

Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover explain why keystone habits lead us to purchase products, goods, and services in our daily lives.

Fiona Sydney

2025-07-26 09:26:00 Saturday ET

Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover explain why keystone habits lead us to purchase products, goods, and services in our daily lives.

Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover explain why keystone habits lead us to purchase products, goods, and services in our lives. The Hooked Model can help shine new lig

+See More

Foxconn invests $10 billion in a new manufacturing plant for LCD display panels in Wisconsin.

Chanel Holden

2017-07-13 08:35:00 Thursday ET

Foxconn invests $10 billion in a new manufacturing plant for LCD display panels in Wisconsin.

President Donald Trump has announced that a major Apple iPhone upstream supplier, Foxconn Technology Group (aka Hon Hai Precision Group), will invest $10 bi

+See More

Self-Improvement Book Review: The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey.

Monica McNeil

2026-05-02 10:28:00 Saturday ET

Self-Improvement Book Review: The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey.

Stephen Covey recommends the 8th habit for effective team leaders to find their own voices (in addition to the 7 habits of highly effective people). In esse

+See More

Blackrock asset research director Andrew Ang shares his economic insights into fundamental factors for global asset management.

Apple Boston

2019-07-29 11:33:00 Monday ET

Blackrock asset research director Andrew Ang shares his economic insights into fundamental factors for global asset management.

Blackrock asset research director Andrew Ang shares his economic insights into fundamental factors for global asset management. As Ang indicates in an inter

+See More

Sprint and T-Mobile propose a major merger in order to better compete with AT&T and Verizon.

Joseph Corr

2018-05-03 07:34:00 Thursday ET

Sprint and T-Mobile propose a major merger in order to better compete with AT&T and Verizon.

Sprint and T-Mobile propose a major merger in order to better compete with AT&T and Verizon. This mega merger is worth $26.5 billion and involves an all

+See More