Free Trade Essay

Introduction Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once shared how “free trade is not based on utility but on justice”, so is this still the case, or has it changed over the years? In the 1930’s, countries competed against one another to raise trade barriers, which then created disputes. Left to themselves, disputes will continue to grow and end up to become conflicts, which could potentially lead to war. As a result, the first international organization known to prevent such catastrophe was called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trades (GATT), which was formed in 1948 and signed by 23 countries to facilitate International trade. In 1995, GATT was replaced by another international organization now known as the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is based in Geneva and whose purpose is to “policy free trade agreements, settle trade disputes between government and organizes trade negotiations”. Today, the WTO is the only international organization that oversees the international rules of trade. It aims to have zero trade barriers, which allows countries to trade freely. Despite this, the WTO still has over 30,000 regulations that go against free trade. The question arises whether the WTO truly enforces justice and serve its purpose of effectively reducing tariffs equally for all countries, as well as abide by healthy and fair and regulations that prevent conflict and biasness, or does the WTO still base trade on the utility of developed countries/parties? Free Trade Regulating international trade to be free from tariffs, the WTO helps rich countries such as China to benefit greatly through exporting products, but deeply harms poor-developing countries that receive those products. Initially, tariffs were expensive and raised the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ve the contrary. First, developed countries that use agricultural subsides must be taxed so the final prices of their products will be more expensive than those of the domestic products in developing countries. This will allow those farmers in developing countries to sell their products at a higher price, giving them profit and eventually be able to make a living for them and their families. Developing countries’ domestic companies must be protected so their prices will be cheaper than imported products, encouraging customers to purchase them. Next, the WTO cannot be in favor of companies over health. Their egos cannot overthrow their own realizations of how somebody’s health is more important than money. In my opinion, trade has definitely differed to what philosopher Edmund Burke once perceived it to be. These days, trade is based more on utility, than justice.