International Trade Assignment Protectionism and Free Trade

Running head: PROTECTIONISM AND FREE TRADE
Protectionism and Free Trade
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Introduction
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union between 28 European
countries. All these 28 countries together cover most portion of the continent. EU was
established after the end of World War II. The main motive behind the establishment of EU was
to establish economic cooperation among all the countries (The EU In Brief - European Union -
European Commission). This can be considered as the emergence of the concept of free trade.
The main aim of the concept of free trade is to make the countries economically independent in
order to avoid conflicts among them. It can be seen that EU has implement different kinds of
rules and regulations for the promotion of free trade across the companies. The principles of free
trade are considered as the founding principles of EU among its member countries and another
major aim of free trade agreement is to liberalize free trade all over the world.
Discussion
All over the world, EU is considered as the biggest trader union that accounts for almost
16.5% important and exports of the whole world. EU’s initiative of the establishment of free
trade all over the world is considered as considered as the founding principles and it is
committed towards the linearization of world trade market. In this context, it needs to be
mentioned that World Trade was established based on the principle of the World Trade
Organizations. However, the rule is different for EU as the free trade policies of EU has been
developed based on the exclusive principle of EU level. After the development of EU, the
commissioner discussed the agreements of EU with the policies of WTO to make the agreement
acceptable in every country all over the world. EU is considered as the largest exporter all over
the world and it has the largest import marker all over the 100 countries (One Market Without

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Borders - European Union - European Commission). In addition, EU is the world’s largest single
market area for both the international and European consumers and for this reason, the
consumers enjoy many types of business benefits under the simplified business system of EU. In
the trade system of EU, money, people, goods and services can be moved easily. It can be seen
that EU uses to negotiate their trade agreements with the countries of all over the world in order
to strengthen their trade relations. From trade policies, EU developed their Free Trade
Agreements (Altbach). The main advantage of the free trade policies of EU is that it helps in the
growth of business in the European markets. In addition, it helps in the creation of jobs in the
European countries. On the other hand, it helps in the opening of new business markets all over
the Europe (European Union Policy Towards Free Trade Agreements).
It can be seen that there are many other major benefits of the free trade agreement of
EU. The free trade agreement of EU aims in the reduction of child labor as well as forced labor
in the European markets. In addition, another major two objectives of free trade agreement of EU
is to reduce environmental destruction and to reduce the volatility in commodity prices in the
European market (The European Union's Trade Policies And Their Economics Effects). The
development of the free trade policies of EU has made it sure that there is transparency and
traceability in all the trading processes in Europe. Apart from this, it is crucial to mention the fact
that the development of free trade policies of EU has major positive impacts on the poorest
countries all over the world as it has taken the step to combine trade and development. The main
aim is to being improvements in businesses of the poor countries all over the world. As per the
free trade agreement, EU provides some major services for the development of the business of
the poor countries (McCormick). They are to allow lower amount of duties in trade processes; to
support small export businesses for developing the businesses of poor countries; to provide

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valuable advice and governance to the businesses of poor countries so that they can bring growth
in their businesses. Thus, it is clear that EU has taken a major step with the agreements of free
trade to bring down the technical, legal and bureaucratic barriers in the business processes.
Hence, from the above discussion, it can be seen that EU has taken the decision of developing
the free trade agreement among the companies in order to bring changes in the business of
European counties along with the poor counties all over the world (Trade - European Union -
European Commission).
In this context, it needs to be mentioned that there has been some major reason or factors
that makes EU to move towards the development of free trade agreements. The first factor was
the difficulty of EU in the multilateral negotiations. It can be seen that before the development of
free trade agreements, EU were facing great difficulties in the multilateral negotiations in WTO
and EU literally failed in achieving the aim to comprehend the WTO agenda (Nugent). As a
result, EU also failed in making progress in services and non-agricultural market. The second
important factor was the major developments in the trade policy of United States (US). In the
years of 1990s, US considered free trade agreements as the pathfinder. Thus, it can be seen that
at that time, US considered the agreement of free trade as a bilateral mean to end the making of
unnecessary rules regarding competitive liberalization. At that time, EU understood the
importance of the development of free trade agreements. The third major factors were the
continuous flourishing growth in the Asian market. At that time, it was seen that there was not
any concrete full fledge agreements between the EU and the Asian countries. Thus, it was
needed for EU to establish business relations with the Asian countries for the business growth in
the European countries (Horspool and Matthew). The final factor for EU for the development of
free trade agreements was to improve the domestic business market of Europe. Thus, from the

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above discussion, it can be seen that there are many reasons that forced EU for the adoption or
development of free trade agreements (Wallace et al.). The above discussion shows that all of the
above-discussed reasons or factors were vastly responsible for the development of free trade
agreements by EU.
Unlike the regulations in US, same content of free trade agreements in EU cannot be
applied in other situations. Thus, it can be seen that the content of free trade agreements in EU
varies from case to case. However, based on the above discussion, it can be seen that the
development of free trade agreements has been developing major business opportunities for the
European countries. Major positive effects of free trade agreements can be seen in the European
countries (Smith). This free trade agreement has been able to sell products to almost 500 million
customers and it has been helping the companies of Europe to stay competitive. On the other
hand, the single market of EU has been able to attract the attention of major investors. However,
it needs to be mentioned that some barriers are there in the free trade agreements of EU. The
fragmented national taxing system of Europe is a major barrier in the process of market
integration. It can be seen that in the single market of EU, many divisions can be seen and the
divisions in the single market is not good for the free trade agreements of EU. In addition, there
are some other disadvantages of free trade agreements can be seen; they are the weak
implementation of e-commerce, volatility in rules and regulations and others (Bomberg et al.). In
spite of all these difficulties, the development of free trade agreements by EU has been
considered as highly successful. The main reason is that it has been successful in the promotion
of various business activities in the European countries. It has been seen that EU provides their
citizens with some unique facilities so that they can carry on the business activities without any
hassle.

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be observed that step of EU for the development of free
trade agreements is a major step to promote trades in European countries. The above discussion
shows the emergence of free trade agreements by EU. Prior to the implementation of free trade
agreements, EU had to face major disadvantages and difficulties. Thus, from the above
discussion, it can be seen that the development of free trade agreements has made EU a unique
institutions that provides unique solutions to the trade and businesses in Europe. It is clear that
the implementation of free trade agreements has made the trading process easier for the
European companies. In addition, this free trade agreement has also been helpful for the poorest
countries all over the world. It has brought transparency in the trading process and has also
diminished the conflict between countries of Europe regarding business. Thus, from the whole
study, it can be concluded that the implementation of free trade agreements has made EU a
unique institute.

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References
"European Union Policy Towards Free Trade Agreements." ecipe.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 25 Oct.
2017.
"One Market Without Borders - European Union - European Commission." European Union.
N.p., 2017. Web. 25 Oct. 2017.
"The EU In Brief - European Union - European Commission." European Union. N.p., 2017.
Web. 25 Oct. 2017.
"The European Union's Trade Policies And Their Economics Effects." oecd.org. N.p., 2017.
Web. 25 Oct. 2017.
"Trade - European Union - European Commission." European Union. N.p., 2017. Web. 25 Oct.
2017.
Altbach, Philip. "Knowledge and education as international commodities." International higher
education 28 (2015).
Bomberg, Elizabeth, John Peterson, and Richard Corbett, eds. The European Union: how does it
work?. Oxford University Press, 2012.
Horspool, Margot, and Matthew Humphreys. European Union Law. Oxford University Press,
2012.
McCormick, John. Understanding the European Union: a concise introduction. Palgrave
Macmillan, 2014.

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Nugent, Neill. The government and politics of the European Union. Springer, 2017.
Smith, Karen E. European Union foreign policy in a changing world. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
Wallace, Helen, Mark A. Pollack, and Alasdair R. Young, eds. Policy-making in the European
Union. Oxford University Press, USA, 2015.