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This article describes Bolivia's attempt to join the Mercosur trade bloc in South America, which we learned about this week. There are obvious benefits to the trade bloc that it wishes to exploit, but some people don't feel it is ready to join the trade bloc.

In order to protect its domestic industries from European subsidized-sugar, Canada places high duties (tariffs) on imported sugar. This article details how local firms are benefiting due to a ruling that allows these trade barriers. While consumers would benefit from free trade because they can purchase sugar at a low price, it would have a harmful effect on domestic firms, which is why protectionist measures are put in place.

When countries form a free-trade deal, it allows the imports and exports between the countries to grow, because there are less trade restrictions such as tariffs. This means that, with import prices decreasing, aggregate supply in Canada will increase.

This article discusses the possibility of a free trade deal between China and Canada; while Canada has the potential to benefit greatly from this deal, Canadians are weary for numerous reasons, including Chinese takeovers of domestic companies, and human rights issues.

The article addresses the trade between the United States and China. The trade between these two countries has swollen to a record $295 billion in 2011. Though, the trade doesn't seem as nice as it actually is, and Obama has filed 8 cases against China at the WTO since 2009. On the other hand there is Romney, who says that Obama hasn't been aggressive enough, so if he gets elected it seems that a lot is going to change.

I found this article interesting about the international trade relations between the US and China. The perspective on what type of trade is best is explored in this article, leaving us wondering if the free trade economy model will continue to work for the US, or should there be a change?

Russia and its partners (Belarus and Kazakhstan) are looking to seal a free trade deal with New Zealand. However, the articles talks about external issues to consider that will affect or be affected by the deal. The main concern of both parties is the current negative state of the global economy and how they intend to overcome this by trade. " "The priority goal is to fight protectionism together in all its forms; traditional and new alike ... It is important to build bridges, not walls," he said. "

This article is about the trade off and trade defiecits between America and China during iPhone production and exportation. It discusses the idea in terms of America and China, but also uses an example involving fictional places to give a clearer picture and explanation of the idea.

This article describes the Czech current account balance. The current account is experiencing a widening deficit, as a result of "the outflow of dividends outweighing the foreign-trade surplus". This means that, although this country is experiencing good trade, too much investment in the country is leading to outflow of money to foreign investors.

This article reports that Ukraine is thinking to raise its tariffs on various imported goods. Since Ukraine joined the WTO, its trade deficit has been increasing. The increase in trade deficit suggests that the international market is too competitive for the Ukrainian goods and putting them at a disadvantage. To respond to this issue, the Ukrainian government is thinking to raise tariffs so as to protect the domestic goods from aggressive international competitions.

This article talks about environmental sustainability, especially in the US, in terms of the carbon and oil situation. Hindering some paths of oil trade, may slow down the trade in the early stages, however there will be other paths since the international demand is so high right now. The price is steadily decreasing with the increased demand. The only ways to control this demand for oil that may be hurting our planet would be to tax the carbon (increasing the price), therefore decreasing demand.

This article discusses the potential difficulties of the Mercosur trade bloc in South America. Disputes amongst the members is causing distress to the economic system, and political isolation and dispute are becoming obstacles to economic collaboration.

This article describes a decision by the US Federal reserve regarding inflation rates. The article points out that the unemployment rate has declined and inflation has increase, showing the trade-off. They hope, by monetary policy, however, to attempt to both reduce unemployment and achieve a stable rate of inflation.

This article talks about the ongoing Social Security debate happening in the U.S. federal government. Some state governments, such as Texas, form their own version of Social Security which has been confusing to the original plan. The trade-off illustrated here is "more you contribute, the more your savings will be." By contributing more money now, you will eventually make more money. However, many people don't want to give up lots of money now!

The United States hit Chinese solar companies with punitive import tariffs of 30 percent or more, ruling they had dumped cut-price solar panels into the U.S. market. Several of the Chinese companies and a solar trade group opposed to the tariffs denounced the duties, and said they would drive up costs for the clean energy source, stunting its fast growth.

Venezuela's ports were nationalised in 2010 during a recession. However, now especially during the festive period imports have almost doubled. This has caused a large build up in the ports. Venezuela have just joined the trade bloc, Mercosur. This will cause a larger increase in imports due to the removing of trade barriers. Therefore, the poor infrastructure must be improved. A new container terminal has been suggested to try to cope with this.

"We need to have a much more honest conversation about the tradeoff between inflation and real growth." There is an ongoing conflict of how to manage inflation via increasing aggregate demand which is the classic trade off. The article indicates "liberals arguing for government intervention and conservatives often pushing for tax breaks and incentives to get the private sector moving again." This is not only a national economic conflict, but a political conflict as well.

Jan 26th 2012, 15:07 by E.G. | AUSTIN MATTHEW YGLESIAS, writing at Slate, is perplexed by Barack Obama's plan to "boost the economy by hindering trade". He argues that in his state-of-the-union address, the president evinced "a strikingly retrograde, self-contradictory, and confused agenda of reviving American prosperity through mercantilism". He says that due to macroeconomic events out of their control people are losing jobs and the economy is shrinking.