Question

Countries are interconnected today as never before. From eating foods from different countries to singing along to songs performed by foreign bands to wearing clothes made in faraway nations, chances are you encounter something or someone from another country on a daily basis. While it may not seem like it as you go about your daily business, governments play a role in your obtaining goods and services from other countries. This unit explores how and why the government might seek to limit or promote trade between countries, as well as other business activities.
Think about the benefits that trade and interconnectedness can bring you as a consumer. Also consider the drawbacks, if any, to this increasing globalization. Should the government care about how much trade the United States undertakes with other countries? When should the government seek to promote trade? When should the government seek to limit trade?


must be 3 to 5 sentences

plz help

Answer 1

This is tough to answer in 3-5 sentences, and tends to also be a heavy identifier of your possible political leanings.  You'll have to apologize if some of mine leak out in the response, but this is a question we debate hotly more frequently than every 4 years.

In general, international trade can help increase the GDP and overall profits for US-based corporations.  However, if all we do is export, and we don't import, other countries don't look favorably upon that and may heavily tax our goods to counter this.

I believe we do need to be thoughtful about the amounts and kinds of international trade that we engage in.  For example, farming is always a hotly debated issue for international trade, in part because farmers in other countries with a dramatically lower cost of living OR farmers in countries with a favorable currency rate (exchange from their currency to our dollars gives them an advantage) can undercut our farmers here in the US, many of whom are already struggling.

There are also those who are worried that when we import produce from countries that have not outlawed pesticides we know are carcinogenic, for instance, this creates not only a disadvantage for US farmers, but also for consumers who may be concerned about health issues.

As another example of this, many countries outlawed import of US beef during the Mad Cow Epidemic.  We in turn also placed bans on importing beef from the UK.  

These are examples of why it's important to be thoughtful about trade, but there are certainly many others, including decline in production jobs within the US that have left cities like Detroit a ghost town (this was formerly the hub of our automotive industry production).