Trade Agreements
Completion requirements
Trade agreements allow companies to sell their products and services in other countries with little or no restrictions, depending on the agreement's terms. Think of some of your favorite products that come from another country. Most of them are possible due to trade agreements at some point in the process, and those agreements allowed the company to produce a quality product at a competitive price. Trade agreements have generated opportunities, but they have created challenges in some industries and countries. Jobs have become concentrated in lower-wage countries, which produce products that are then sent back to higher-wage countries through trade agreements. Read this section and then complete the questions at the end.
Critical Thinking Questions
- If trade barriers hurt the average worker in an economy (due to lower wages), why do governments create trade barriers?
- Why do you think labor standards and working conditions are lower in the low-income countries of the world than in countries like the United States?