Trade Agreements

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. 

International Trade and Its Effects on Jobs, Wages, and Working Conditions

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Discuss how international trade influences the job market
  • Analyze the opportunity cost of protectionism
  • Explain how international trade impacts wages, labor standards, and working conditions

In theory at least, imports might injure workers in several different ways: fewer jobs, lower wages, or poor working conditions. Let's consider these in turn.


Source: Rice University, https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofeconomics/chapter/34-2-international-trade-and-its-effects-on-jobs-wages-and-working-conditions/
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.