Activated de aprendizaje 11

Evidencia 3: EnsayoFree
Trade Agreement (FTA): advantages and
Disadvantages

STEFANY NORILLIRED QUINTERO OSORIO

SERVICIO NACIONAL DE APRENDIZAJE

SENA
2020
 DESARROLLO

A free trade agreement (FTA) consists of a regional or

bilateral trade agreement to expand the market for goods and
services between different continents or basically around the
world.

It is materialized in the form of a binding trade agreement,

signed by two or more countries to agree on the granting of
mutual tariff preferences and the reduction of non-tariff
barriers to trade in goods and services. These agreements
are governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization
(WTO) or by mutual agreement between the countries.

An FTA does not necessarily imply a regional economic,

social and political integration, as is the case of the European
Union, the Andean Community, Mercosur and the Union of
South American Nations. Although these were created to
promote commercial exchange, they also included fiscal and
budgetary policy clauses, as well as the movement of people
and common political bodies, elements absent in an FTA.

Historically, the first FTA was the Franco-British Free Trade

Agreement (or Cobden-Chevalier Treaty) signed in 1891 and
which also introduced the most-favored-nation clause.

THE MAIN OBJECTIVES OF A FTA ARE:

Eliminate barriers that affect or reduce trade between the
areas that sign the treaty.
Promote the conditions for fair competition.
Increasing investment opportunities.
Provide adequate protection for intellectual property rights.
Establish effective processes for the stimulation of national
production and healthy competition.
Offer a solution to disputes.
Free trade agreements are important to put an end to
economic protectionism (which protects national production)
as they constitute an effective means to guarantee the access
of products to external markets, in an easier way and without
barriers.

DISADVANTAGES OF FTAS
In 2013, in a debate that took place on this subject and held in
Mexico, the director of the International Trade and Integration
Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and
the Caribbean (ECLAC), Osvaldo Rosales, and the senior
economist of the Conference of the United Nations for Trade
and Development (Unctad, for its acronym in English), Alex
Izurieta concluded that agreements between nations with
different levels of economic development, that is, between
countries with a developed economy and emerging countries
are not as equitable such as multilateral agreements that do
try to balance the role of economies.
tlc-colombia exports Emerging economies are the losers,
according to experts who stated that a problem that exists is
that trade agreements between developed and emerging
countries should not be being carried out based on the
differences that exist.