Group items tagged

This article highlights a free trade deal between many south American countries and the united states which apparently will increase labor standards there.

THE passage this month of free trade agreements may be a victory not only for President Obama, but also for workers in Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Although the anticipated economic consequences of these agreements are small, these pacts also offer a mechanism for improving workers' rights in partner countries.

The Obama administration wants to complete free trade agreements with south korea, columbia and panama. They hope to create more jobs that were initially lost by foreign competition. The trade agreements will reduce the price of American products and therefore will increase the sales of these american goods. Obama said: "These agreements will support tens of thousands of jobs across the country for workers making products stamped with three proud words: Made in America,"

This article discusses the difficulties with achieving free trade between two countries. Despite the free trade agreement almost two years ago, the US and Mexico are still facing political issues which means that a mexican truck was allowed on U.S. soil for the first time recently.

The article is an example of how the trade disputes between China and the U.S. results in China finding new ways of getting around those trade barriers by using the free trade agreement between Columbia and the U.S: "With around 35 to 40% of the value of a product added in Colombia, it may be considered Colombian and enter the U.S. tax free"

This article discusses upcoming changes in Africa that will allow for free trade while meanwhile instituting trade blocs.

This article highlights the potential for a new free trade zone containing mostly south and east african countries. Many problems may arise from this new institution, however, these legal and regulatory roadblocks are seen to slow down any chance of a new trade bloc in southern Africa.

Rob Dickins, former major-label boss, has sugested to slash the price of CDs to 1 puond each so as to increase the damnd for that product. The main competition of the CD industry is music piracy and downloading it for free from the internet. Cutting down the price of CDs is not the solution because, however small the price might be, it would still be more expensive than downloading it for free. Secondly, reducing the price so drastically for such a product, other than it being an insult to producers and musicians, means a very high production cost, for very low retribution.

Imposition of levies (taxes) by G20 governments to reduce government budget deficit: The G20 summit held in Canada over the weekend has confirmed the trend of fiscal consolidation which is happening in many of the major world economies in the wake of the financial crisis and recession. Leaders have agreed that debt as a proportion of gross domestic product needs to be stabilised or actually reduced by 2016 and it was noted that all the G20 countries had committed to halving their respective deficits within three years. Plans to introduce a global levy on banks have, as expected, been dropped although the summit confirmed that member countries would be free to introduce their own measures. The UK introduced a levy in the emergency Budget last week and some other European countries also have plans to do so...

This article discusses a recent free trade agreement between the US and Colombia. It displays the various effects one trade agreement can have on the economies of other countries around the world. An example from the article is how this new agreement between the US and Colombia has strengthened Colombia's relationship with China.

Because of the protectionism surrounding the US, Columbia has taken to trading largely with China, which has boosted the Colombian economy. Now the US has decided on free trade with Colombia, even though Colombia no longer needs this as it has become independent of the US.

This article discusses an initiative by the head of states of several African countries to form a FTA between 26 African countries. The article discusses the advantages of this FTA such as very small countries working together to improve global trading but also the problems with creating it such as the political and social issues in Africa right now.

This Article highlights the problem of water scarcity in war-torn Iraq. The Scarcity of Water has caused the government to make it a priority in solving this problem along with UNESCO and the EU. Any story that involves Iraqi politicians cooperating to solve an issue must be a good sign weither they accomplish it or not. This Scarcity is a central and unifying issue and ironically may produce positive effects.

Nabil, I find this interesting since it associates scarcity with water. I recently read an article that talked about the implications of bottled water being treated as a luxury good in developed nations (branded water even!). And in your article water is being discussed as a scarce resource. Clearly, it would make more moral sense for less water to be sold as a luxury and more distributed to areas where it's scarce, but the profit motive steers the practice in another direction altogether!

Nabil, I also find this particularly interesting because I've always wondered about whether or not water availability will decrease as time progresses and the amount of human beings in the planet increases. I have always thought of water as being incredibly cheap if not completely free (go to a river and sip some water), and this makes it hard for me to think of water as being something that will be depleted any time soon.

This website talks about how The Invisible Hand, a theory created by Adam Smith, decides the prices of various resources in a free market.

This article talks about the UK government setting a minimum wage which probably will create unemployment as we read in the weekly reading activities.

There is a risk of a double-dip recession because of the chronic lack of aggregate demand and the failure of the austerity packages provided by the European countries.

This article talks mainly about all the economical problems, especially deficits, between European countries and who is to blame for it. And what should we do? Well one statement was: "it will be only a matter of time before one or more countries resort to protectionism. That could, as in the 1930s, lead to a disastrous collapse in activity around the world," He definitely prefers free trade and thinks it is important to focus on a collaborative strategy, so countries should help each other out in these hard economic times instead of work against each other.

An article from the economics section of The Economist on free trade. It focuses on America's lost decade and the role of liberalization of trade in it.

This is a NYT editorial article written in June addressing the issue of a looming trend of protectionism. The big trading nations' patience with the open market is wearing thin with the sluggish economic recovery. However, it is crucial that the world stays committed to the game with a sense of common purpose to survive the economic crisis. Protectionism brings disruptions of the international supply chains and reduce economic activity.

The article discusses whether there should be a change in tariff regarding the US flower import. As it is the tariff on Colombian flower imports is 8% but the US government is considering tariff free trade with Bogota, which would be less fortunate for the Colombian flower suppliers.

A pioneering project to provide 22,000 tenants of social housing schemes with solar panels generating free electricity is in jeopardy.