Affects of Globalization and Free Trade

Affects of Globalization and Free Trade

The idea of free trade is a big issue in the United States because it has so many positive and negative effects on our daily lives. Free trade is a market in which goods and services between countries are traded by government rules and restrictions. Some of these rules and regulations include taxes, non-tariff barriers, quotas, legislation, and other regulations. These regulations are there to keep domestic industries from being taken over from foreign competition. Some people think that free trade is a good thing because when we get products from other countries, the consumers can actually afford them. If we had to make cell phones, computer, sneakers, and items like that here, no one could afford those things. On the other hand, because we are shipping so many jobs overseas, many people in the U.S. are losing their jobs. If we keep the jobs here, no one could afford things like a cell phone, and if we use free trade to get products from overseas, we lose jobs. This is called outsourcing. Free trade is an issue that affects many people, in both positive and negative ways.

Free trade is one of the reasons people in the United States are able to have such nice things. People take everyday things for granted, such as cell phones, lab tops, cars, and much more. If all of these products were made in the United States, most people would not be able to afford them. By the United States being able to get goods from other countries, prices of those things are drastically different. As stated by Joseph Stiglitz in Making Globalization Work, “free trade agreements are flooding into Asia to places like China and India” (10). People in a country like China, which has over a billion people, need a lot of jobs. They can make things like a cell

phone or Jordan sneakers for a fraction of the price it would cost a company in the United States. As stated in the article ‘Everybody’s doing it,’ “China’s own appetite...