Each agreement covers five areas. First, tariffs and other business taxes will be abolished. This gives companies in both countries a price advantage. The best way to operate is for each country to be specialized in different sectors of activity. Member States benefit from trade agreements, including increased employment opportunities, lower unemployment rates and increased market opportunities. Since trade agreements generally come with investment guarantees, investors who wish to invest in developing countries are protected from political risks. Once negotiated, multilateral agreements are very powerful. They cover a wider geographic area, giving signatories a greater competitive advantage. All countries also give themselves the status of the most favoured nation – and grant the best conditions of mutual trade and the lowest tariffs. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would remove existing barriers to trade between the United States and the European Union. This would be the largest agreement ever reached by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Negotiations were suspended after President Trump took office. Although the EU is made up of many Member States, it can negotiate as a unit. The TTIP thus becomes a bilateral trade agreement. 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. The United States has signed bilateral trade agreements with 20 countries, including Israel, Jordan, Australia, Chile, Singapore, Bahrain, Morocco, Oman, Peru, Panama and Colombia. Full integration of member countries is the last level of trade agreements. These occur when one country imposes trade restrictions and no other country responds.
A country can also unilaterally relax trade restrictions, but this rarely happens. This would penalize the country with a competitive disadvantage. The United States and other developed countries do so only as a kind of foreign aid to help emerging countries strengthen strategic industries that are too small to be a threat. It helps the economies of emerging countries to develop and creates new markets for U.S. exporters. These agreements between three or more countries are the most difficult to negotiate. The larger the number of participants, the more difficult the negotiations. They are, by nature, more complex than bilateral agreements, insofar as each country has its own needs and requirements. In addition to creating a U.S. commodity market, expansion has helped spread the mantra of trade liberalization and promote open borders to trade. However, bilateral trade agreements can distort a country`s markets when large multinationals, with considerable capital and resources to operate on a large scale, enter a market dominated by smaller players. As a result, they may have to close their stores if they compete.
As soon as the agreements go beyond the regional level, they need help. The World Trade Organization intervenes at this stage. This international body contributes to the negotiation and implementation of global trade agreements. A trade agreement signed between more than two parties (usually neighbouring or in the same region) is considered multilateral. They face the main obstacles – to content negotiation and implementation. The more countries involved, the more difficult it is to achieve mutual satisfaction. Once this type of trade agreement is governed, it will become a very powerful agreement.