Question

Find a recent article (less than one month old) from a reputable news source concerning a Free and Fair Trade issue between at least two countries.

• Summarize the article.
• What is the issue?
• Explain why this issue is important to the global community.
• Evaluate the source.
• What is your opinion?

Answer 1

In the international trade front, a free trade emphasises on the reduction of barriers and policies in favour of a certain country or industry and the fairness of trade focus on the rights of workers, improvements in the working conditions etc and tries to eliminate the discrepancies in the labour and related issues on a large scale. Trade issues are common in the international economy. As an example, let us discuss the recent trade issue between America and China after the Covid-19 pandemic has made devastating effects on the economy.

                                    The US-China trade war refers to an ongoing war between USA and China in the international trading scenario. An evident increase in the trading war has been seen from 2018 when the new government started imposing tariffs and other trade barriers on China with a goal to make changes to the ‘unfair trade practices’ that are being questioned by the American economy. There have been many reasons like increasing deficit, theft of intellectual property and forceful transfer of American technology to China which stands as a base of these issues. With the recent spread of the corona virus which had its origin in China, the tensions in the trade have been escalated with the USA questioning the role of China in spreading the pandemic. The trade barriers have been increased thereafter. There are also other reasons like more focus on development of the domestic economy and manufacturing to which the Chinese exports are a threat. Chinese economy is an export driven one. With the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a substantial decline in the international trade which has affected the Chinese economy on a large scale.

                                    Trade wars are always intended to save the economy of a country. When we analyse the ongoing trade wear between the USA and China, we can see that more than protecting the interests of a nation, it has had more negative impacts on both the nations. With barriers to trade, the exports of China to USA have been decreased drastically. In USA, it has led to increased consumption prices for the consumers and has introduced financial difficulties for the farmers and manufacturers on a large scale. The economic growth in China has had a negative trend in the recent times. It has also led to many disadvantages on the international scale. The stock market stability has been affected on a large scale and the import-oriented economies have lost their economic stability. Although some nations have been able to take advantages out of the manufacturing gap that has been created as a result of this, the general need of the international community is to reverse the war trends and stabilise the international economy