Members who support free trade. Please respond to the following two prompts (completed the minimal 200 words summary). Then, each individual student shall comment on the opponent group’s opinion (members who support protection) and reasoning, indicating your agreement or disagreement with their position and why.

Many opponents of free trade use the following example to illustrate its negative effects:

Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6AM. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a dress shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) filled it with gas from SAUDI ARABIA and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day he checked email on his computer (MADE IN MALAYSIA) then decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wondered WHY he can’t find a good-paying job in America.

  • Prompt 1: Should America encourage free trade with its trading partners or seek a more protectionist approach? Take a stand on this issue. Support your opinion with good economic reasoning. Who benefits from your approach and who loses? Why? Include impacts on both American citizens and the citizens of the other countries with whom we (U.S.) trade. If your home country is outside the U.S. indicate the possible impact of your stand (favoring either free trade or trade protectionism) on your country. Some common search topics include employment, tariffs, quotas, and free trade agreements.
  • Prompt 2:Find a recent news article or editorial (past 12 months) that supports your point of view. Summarize the article, indicate how it supports your answer to #1, and include the URL.

Opponent group’s opinion: (support protection)

America should continue to have protections and standards on trade because it increases employment rates, the economy’s GDP is boosted, and there are lower imports. Not only does protected trade provide these benefits to the American consumers, but American goods are protected from being over flamed by worldwide prices as well. These protections are put in place to protect the suppliers of this country, to help with their domestic markets, and to ensure they have consumers that will pay for their domestic product over the imported one. Along with protecting suppliers of the country that is producing these products, comes with protecting the product as well. There are some countries in the world that have very precious non-renewable resources. Many of these countries are in the Middle East because this is the part of the world where very rich non-renewable oils are geographically located. These oil-rich Middle Eastern economies really aim to rely on oil exports lasting long term, and in order to do that, limiting output in the short term through protection quotas is one way that can conserve resources. Placing these quotas not only protects the consumer and the producer on both ends, but it also protects the precious resource that is difficult to come across. If there was free trade, these non-renewable resources would be gone in a flash.