Free and fair Trade Discussion

Free and fair Trade Discussion

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The world of trade has been thrown into a debate about free and fair trade for some time now. The notion of free and fair trade has is based on the freedom to do business and compensation of the workers. Fair trade campaign focuses mostly on the welfare of the workers. Trade has been recognized to be the surest way to promote livelihoods and provide fair growth opportunities for countries and companies all over the world. Standardizing conditions for trade however, has been more difficult than ever because of the perception differences of the players of in industries all over the world.

Barriers in free trade.

Free and fair trade looks to be a debate that is going to go on for a while longer. This is because both the free trade proponents and those proposing fair trade are looking to favor their side of the conversation without a holistic look at trade. Reduction of barriers that policies and regulations that favor certain industries in in certain countries (Gillikin, 2019). They think that a business depending on their ability to adapt to free and open market, should succeed or fail. Companies pay extra to do business in foreign soils and it is one of the discrepancies opposed by free traders (Drezner, 2006).

Fair trade on working conditions

Fair trade advocates propose that companies should increase the wage rates of workers in countries where they migrate in order to avoid paying higher regulation wage rates elsewhere. They argue that the companies should be able to pay workers fair hourly rates regardless of the region (Drezner, 2006). In certain regions, companies subject their workers to harsh working conditions. This as a component fair traders want regulated as companies are taking advantage of lack of policy to force workers into conditions that are unfavorable without compensation (Gillikin, 2019)..

In my opinion, fair trade is a better way of ending the debate about trade. If governments and multinationals adopted fair practices of doing business, there would be no need for free trade discussion as it will be a subsequent of the fairness policies set out for trading . Companies that seek to improve the conditions of their workers also require policies that facilitate freedom of doing business regardless of where they operate from (Drezner, 2006). Free trade requires political good will to create an environment where businesses will compete with each other without having preferential back up from government for certain companies in the economy. Fair trade requires that companies address the needs of workers fairly throughout the globe (Gillikin, 2019). For these two reasons, fairness in trade is the surest way to improve business conditions and take care of the workers who facilitate the business (Gillikin, 2019).

The concept of comparative supports the theory that specializing on the most advantageous traits to produce more, countries and companies will be able to build better products by focusing on their advantages. This will leave room in the market for other countries to produce goods of their specialization (Gillikin, 2019). Providing free and fair terms of trade would facilitate good trading terms where companies would acquire what they lack in skill, and hence promote trade. For this reason, the need for the discussion of free and fair trade is hugely unnecessary.

Conclusion

Free and fair trade is a notion that there can a standardized way of doing business and trade regardless of the industry you seek to plunge into. This notion can be achieved by ensuring that compensation for workers is justified by the hours they input, and the conditions provided are conducive. There is also a great need for governments and trade blocks to recognize the need to create policies that favor free trade for all industries (Drezner, 2006). This will enable fair competition and create jobs for the economy. But if companies would seek to specialize on their individual strengths to produce, they would provide high quality products in less time and provide a gap in the market for others to thrive in.

(Drezner, 2006)

References

Drezner, D. W. (2006). U.S. trade strategy free versus fair. Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved from www.cfr.org/content/publications/attachments/CPCTrade.pdf

Gillikin, Jason. (2019, March 08). Free Trade Vs. Fair Trade. Small Business – Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/trade-vs-fair-trade-1683.html