Free trade: an engine for growth or for exploitation?
How can Pakistan make the most of its own deals with countries like China and Malaysia?
ISLAMABAD:
Free trade is a theoretical framework that allows trading partners to import and export goods and services without any sort of barriers and restrictions. Free trade is, in fact, a trade policy under which governments impose no restrictions, whatsoever, on imports and exports to each other on the basis of comparative advantage. Free trade agreements (FTAs) are treaties under which the countries regulate their trade by waiving off specific set of duties, taxes and tariffs apparently to get maximum benefit out of their comparative advantage positions. What are advantages and disadvantages of such free trade arrangements for the countries like Pakistan and what are the best practices that could be quoted as examples to be followed in the world?
Modern Diplomacy
Published 3 weeks ago
The Valdai International Club recently hosted a “Whose Rules? Revisionists and Protectors in World Politics” online discussion, timed for the release of the Club’s new report “Institutional revisionism in international politics: a product of an upswing, a child of decline, or something else?”
During the event, prominent Russian and foreign experts focused on the impact of revisionist tendencies on world politics.
The current trend in international relations, associated with the growing tensions in the world, is compounded by mutual accusations of revisionism by the United States on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other. Washington has always been trying to reform existing institutions to serve its own interests. These efforts became particularly evident during the Trump presidency, when Washington withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, revised the terms of the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), criticized the
The incoming US administration is under tremendous pressure to demonstrate better economic management. Trade negotiations normally take years to conclude, if at all. Unsurprisingly, lobbyists are already urging the next administration to quickly embrace and deliver a new version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Repackaging and reselling a TPP avatar will not be easy. Well before President Donald Trump’s election, even the official mid-2016 International Trade Commission’s assessment doubted the Peterson Institute of International Economics’ (PIIE) claims of significant benefits from the TPP for all.
Unsurprisingly, most major US presidential candidates in the 2016 election even Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama’s Secretary of State, credited with his “pivot to Asia” to isolate China opposed the TPP.
The incoming Biden administration is under tremendous pressure to demonstrate better US economic management. Trade negotiations normally take years to conclude, if at all. Unsurprisingly, lobbyists ar