Talk:Free trade
I think there needs to be a discussion of free trade's affects on wages throughout the world. --Muhgcee 09:03, 20 Dec 2004 (UTC)
"The 19th century anti-patent cause failed largely because the recession of 1874 discredited the free trade movement"
Should this be taken out? I don't think this gives a NPOV because free trade is hardly "discredited", it's well accepted among many economists. It might be possible this person is confusing free trade with classical or laissez faire economics, but that's not the same as free trade.--User:Damnedkingdom
- But was it discredited at the time? That's what the article suggests. Evercat 20:48 27 May 2003 (UTC)
To be honest I can't tell if it's meant in the temporary or permanent sense. --Damnedkingdom
- I've been bold and clarified it. :-) Evercat 20:57 27 May 2003 (UTC)
- Yeah, I think that is correct. The impression I got from Machlup & Penroses' article is that, during the 1870s, free trade advocates who had previously held positions of influence were discredited in much the same way that investment bankers were discredited in the 1930s. One can have a POV argument about whether this was deserved :)
- Oh, btw, I'm not sure if it's completely correct to place anti-WTO protestors at the opposite end of a "free trade" dichotomy. Most of these protests are not anti "globalisation" --- some of them are anti capitalist, some of them argue for "fair trade" (I'm not sure if those overlap :).
- As the IP section of the article explains, the WTO is about enforcing all sorts of rules which are not necessarily about freeing up trade. Many critics of the contemporary "free trade" movement emphasise that despite the Uruguay round, Europe and the US still have closed agricultural markets. Thus "fair trade" is not necessarily very different from (Platonic) free trade -- Pde 23:46 27 May 2003 (UTC)
Good job Evercat I like the change. --Damnedkingdom
Any comprehensive list of opponents and proponents of free trade would be huge (the current list only includes US examples). Such a list also doesn't take into account the variety of views out there (I don't think anyone is completely, 100% pro- or anti-free trade) - so any such lable would be subjective and NPOV on our part.
Long story short, I deleted the list. If someone has a better idea by all means bring it back (maybe a list of groups taking a strong position on free trade). -- stewacide 05:28, 14 Nov 2003 (UTC)
What about agricultural policy and agricultural subsidies?
For latin american and african countries, this is the biggest issue in the free trade.
I barely see the word agricultural.
The topic 'agricultural subsidies' is included as an issue in the topic fair trade.
But even in that topic, the fact that agricultural subsidies create an unfair competition is not mentioned.
I hope you like my contributions PedroPerez 06:46, 14 Oct 2004 (UTC)
Will someone check out "history of free trade"?
There is an article there that is almost a stub... doesn't make much sense. Maybe someone should merge or connect it with the much better history in this free trade article