Free Trade Agreements in America

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how the free trade agreements in America affect the labor unions, and the small farmers; mostly middle class to lower class persons. It explains that the people who stand to gain the most are those with high positions in corporations, who, thanks to Free trade agreements, can wipe out small competition, and are able to make their own shipping agreements for less money with farmers and manufacturers in less industrialized countries. The paper discusses how the new agreements, which make tariffs on the imported goods low to keep them cost effective, will ultimately crush the small farmer between the giant agribusinesses and the new Central American imports. The paper also looks at instances where labor unions and farmers protested in the hopes of gaining political support, but their attempts to influence policy have been largely ineffective.

From the Paper:

"Free trade agreements have become more common in the U.S. during the last half century, leading to disputes on whether or not those agreements are actually beneficial to our country. Free trade allows countries to trade unique products that cannot be produced in or found in their own countries. Free trade also allows them to be sold at reasonable prices to the consumers. The disadvantages of free trade are that there are also many products that can be produced in multiple countries. Some countries can produce these products cheaper. This can cause huge economic issues/problems for the people who were originally making this product."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Laws, Forrest. (15 March 2006). USDA Seeking Trade Agreements. Southeast Farm Pres, 320, 20-24.
• Cafta Protest Shuts Roads. Retrieved January 10, 2008, from Global Exchange Web site: http://www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/honduras/3295.html
• Unmade in America: the true cost of a global assembly line. (Essay).Barry Lynn. Harper's Magazine 304.1825 (June 2002): p33(9).
• Importers, Exporters, and Multinationals: A Portrait of Firms in the U.S. that Trade Goods (Working Paper - WP 05-10) Andrew B. Bernard, J. Bradford Jensen, and Peter K. SchottInstitute for International Economics.2005
• U.S. Living Standards in an Era of Globalization (Brief 53) Sandra Polaski Carnegie Endowment for International Peace July 2007

More papers on Free Trade Agreements in America:

• Essay # 53010 : "North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)"
• Essay # 60000 : "The Free Trade and the Americas"
• Research Paper # 31548 : "Social Repercussions of Free Trade in Canada"

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