Should the United States pursue free-trade agreement Essay

Should the United States pursue free-trade agreement - Essay Example The benefits of the free trade agreements for the United States and other relevant arguments will be discussed further to support this statement. First of all, free-trade agreements (FTAs) provide the United States with greater opportunities to open up foreign markets to U.S exporters (Textbook, 41). Reduction of trade barriers and tariffs for export, diplomatic and national security, increased stability and transparency of both investment and trading environment, positive public relations with potential investors – are the main benefits the U.S. and its FTA partner country/countries will gain (Trade.gov, n.p.). As FTA’s involve smaller number of countries, the negotiation process is more flexible and has substantially greater chance for success than multilateral trade negotiations (Ewing-Chow, 264). Not only the United States will benefit from the new FTAs but also the other countries involved. Moreover, some experts believe that the other countries will be even in more beneficial position than the USA due to smaller sizes of their economies (Arnold, n.p.). Proponents of the multilateral trade agreements and trade liberalization might criticize this position, arguing that this will undermine the role of WTO and Doha Round multilateral trade liberalization agreement. Even though, the WTO has undertaken some efforts and initiatives for global trade liberalization and increased market openness, the final agreement has not been achieved. The Doha Development Agenda, launched in 2001 as the first round of global trade negotiations, has reached an impasse (Francois, van Meijl, van Tongeren, 350). One of the reasons of the series of launch-delays is the divide of the interests of the major players: developed and developing countries (Evenett, 143). With the increased global â€Å"weight† of such countries as China, and India, it might be very challenging to reach mutual agreement. Developing countries do not want to being taken advantage of by the developed