The European Commission reports annually on the implementation of its main trade agreements in the previous calendar year. Free trade policy has not been as popular with the general public. Key issues include unfair competition from countries where lower labour costs are reducing prices and the loss of well-paying jobs for producers abroad. Economists have tried to assess the extent to which free trade agreements can be considered public goods. First, they deal with a key element of free trade agreements, the system of on-board tribunals, which act as arbiters in international trade disputes. These serve as a clarification of existing statutes and international economic policies, as confirmed by trade agreements. [18] The second way of looking at free trade agreements as public goods is related to the growing tendency to make them “deeper”. The depth of a free trade agreement relates to the additional types of structural policies it covers. While older trade agreements are considered more “flat” because they cover fewer areas (for example. B tariffs and quotas), recent agreements cover a number of other areas, ranging from e-commerce services and data relocation.
Since transactions between parties to a free trade agreement are relatively cheaper than those with non-parties, free trade agreements are considered excluded. Now that deep trade agreements will improve the harmonization of legislation and increase trade flows with non-parties, thereby reducing the exclusivity of free trade agreements, next-generation free trade agreements will take on essential characteristics for public goods. [19] Since WTO members are required to communicate their free trade agreements to the secretariat, this database is based on the official source of information on free trade agreements (called the WTO-language regional trade agreement). The database allows users to obtain information on trade agreements that are communicated to the WTO by country or theme (goods, services or goods and services). This database provides users with an up-to-date list of all existing agreements, but those that are not notified to the WTO may be lacking. In addition, reports, tables and graphs containing statistics on these agreements, including preferential tariff analysis, are presented. [26] The United States currently has 14 free trade agreements with 20 countries. Free trade agreements can help your business enter and compete more easily in the global marketplace through zero or reduced tariffs and other provisions. Although the specifics of each free trade agreement are different, they generally provide for the removal of trade barriers and the creation of a more stable and transparent trade and investment environment.
