Trade Agreements
According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative website, which is part of the Executive Office of the President, the United States has trade agreements with a total of twenty countries. Those countries are Austarlia, Bahrain, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Panama, Peru and Singpore. Beyond that, there are also regional agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP for shot. There are currently negotiations under way to have a similar agreement which is called the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Project, or T-TIP for short, with the European Union. Finally, there are broad-based agreements that involve free trade such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and a few others that are noteworthy (USTR).
Benefits of NAFTA
As far as whether the NAFTA agreement benefits the United States, the answer is dependent on one's perspective and ideas about outsourcing and the shifting of manufacturing. To use the perspective of the United States in particular, the outsourcing of jobs to countries like Mexico has hit...
However, it has been a boon to American companies in terms of their bottom line and it has probably driven (or kept) prices low due to lower manufacturing costs. The author of this response heard more than one person complain about how there are not jobs for people that are unskilled However, it has also been heard by the author that good jobs exist for those that get educated. Regardless, simple manufacturing jobs are going away and NAFTA seems to be here to stay. In short, the agreement is good for many people but it hurts others, to put it lightly.
In general, free trade is better than restricted trade. At the same time, open and generally unregulated markets just lead to businesses taking a mile when they are offered an inch. Generally, this is not a bad thing but people can be impacted when jobs, both service and manufacturing, are shifted to non-American offices. Even so, the market has a way of correcting itself when it comes to things like this and people will absolutely vote with their wallets. While following suit with the industry is one thing, ignoring the ethics and morality of what has come to be known as corporate social responsibility is less than wise. While this…
