A free trade agreement (FTA) or treaty is a multinational agreement under international law to create a free trade area between cooperating states. Free trade agreements, a form of trade pacts, set tariffs and tariffs on imports and exports by countries, with the aim of reducing or removing barriers to trade and thereby promoting international trade. [1] These agreements „generally focus on a chapter with preferential tariff treatment,“ but they often contain „trade facilitation and regulatory clauses in areas such as investment, intellectual property, public procurement, technical standards, and health and plant health issues.“ [2] Few subjects divide economists and the scope of public opinion as much as free trade. Studies show that economists at U.S. university faculties are seven times more likely to support a free trade policy than the general public. In fact, the American economist Milton Friedman said: „The economic profession was almost unanimous on the question of the desire for free trade.“ Since WTO members are required to communicate their free trade agreements to the secretariat, this database is based on the official source of information on free trade agreements (called the WTO-language regional trade agreement). The database allows users to obtain information on trade agreements that are communicated to the WTO by country or theme (goods, services or goods and services). This database provides users with an up-to-date list of all existing agreements, but those that are not notified to the WTO may be lacking. In addition, reports, tables and graphs containing statistics on these agreements, including preferential tariff analysis, are presented. [26] The European Commission reports annually on the implementation of its main trade agreements in the previous calendar year. All these agreements still do not collectively add up to free trade in its form of free trade. Bitter interest groups have successfully imposed trade restrictions on hundreds of imports, including steel, sugar, automobiles, milk, tuna, beef and denim.
There are currently a number of free trade agreements in the United States. These include multi-nation agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which includes the United States, Canada and Mexico, and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which includes most Central American nations.
