Le libre échange (document en anglais)

Free trade refers to the act of opening up economies between various countries of the world. It’s also called trade liberalisation, it’s was devised in the eighteenth century by Adam Smith. Today, globalisation has changed the world into a small place where goods and services can flow freely without any barriers.

Before moving to the main features of free trade, it’s necessary to make a difference between protected trade and free trade. the first one is always dominated by the state which empowers political actors to be the final arbiters of international economic life, contrary to the second one which empowers markets to make final decisions to make final decisions on international economic life .free trade is characterised by a lack of state tariffs on imports, therefore foreign goods would be made more expensive than nationally produced goods, giving the latter a competitive edge.

The countries involved in free trade experience rising living standards, increased real incomes and higher rates of economic growth, this is created by more competitive industries, increased productivity efficient and production levels

Most of nations which have signed free trade agreements were taken out of the economic equation because, as we have noticed, states are disempowered to make any kind of decision concerning the global economy. Based on their preferences consumers and companies are then empowered rather than the state policy to make these decisions.

As a matter of fact, economics are at the center of free trade thinking. Politics are at the center of protected trade. Therefore any free trade regime thinks in terms of efficiency and market while protectionism thinks in terms of domestic producers and state power.

As any practice Free trade has some disadvantages. Because of liberalisation of trade means competition, and competition can be risky especially when it affects a country’s prosperity , so to protect themselves against this problem , nations can make foreign goods more expensive by imposing taxes on them , which means that consumers have to pay more for them .

In practice, Trade has never been free because some countries have taken steps to protect themselves, however trade is free for some countries than it is for others, so trade is not always equal, it can also be a weapon, and it’s based on unregulated consumption while the fact in there is only one planet. All the earth’s resources are finite as a matter of fact Free Trade would grow exponentially with the global pollution.

...