<story><title>EU and Japan create world&apos;s biggest free trade zone</title><url>https://www.dw.com/en/eu-and-japan-create-worlds-biggest-free-trade-zone/a-47319521</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zeroname</author><text>&amp;gt; Free trade is great when applied evenly.&lt;p&gt;Free trade is great even when applied unevenly.</text></item><item><author>drak0n1c</author><text>For those interested in why - Japan always had very high tariffs on cheese (40% on WTO, 37.5% on EU). In comparison, the US has a general tariff of 10% on cheese, with many exceptions making it 0%.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.customs.go.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;tariff&amp;#x2F;2019_2&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;e_04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.customs.go.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;tariff&amp;#x2F;2019_2&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;e_04.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hts.usitc.gov&amp;#x2F;?query=cheese&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hts.usitc.gov&amp;#x2F;?query=cheese&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similarly high tariffs across the board on most imports has been the norm in Japan for decades, with many agricultural products also having quota limits. This led to potato shortages in 2017.&lt;p&gt;Free trade is great when applied evenly. If it takes reciprocative pressure from the US to cause others think differently and change the status quo, so be it.</text></item><item><author>TorKlingberg</author><text>Japan has avoided the madness of tariffs and trade wars that has affected the west recently. Instead they have been quietly negotiating trade deals with everyone and generally getting along. Good on them!&lt;p&gt;Also it includes cheese, which will make westerners in Japan very happy.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>FabHK</author><text>Here&amp;#x27;s one thing I find funny though about this argument (Econ 101, yet correct, yet complicated):&lt;p&gt;The argument for free trade is an efficiency argument (comparative advantage, Ricardo, Hecksher-Ohlin yada yada) that it&amp;#x27;s unambiguously better, but it&amp;#x27;s predicated on redistribution: The reason that free trade is unambiguously better is that you can compensate all the &amp;quot;losers&amp;quot; of free trade so that they&amp;#x27;re as well off as before, and you still have extra income left (to distribute, in theory, as desired politically).&lt;p&gt;Economics mostly shies away from inter-personal utility comparisons (they&amp;#x27;re hard to grapple with) and prefers the notion of &amp;quot;pareto improvements&amp;quot; (where at least someone is better off without anyone being worse of). Trade theory uses this device of redistribution to show that a free trade is a pareto improvement.&lt;p&gt;But then, in the real world, many advocates of free trade suddenly forget about this part of the argument, and when some sectors of society profit handsomely and many (often workers) end up on the street, they suddenly remember their free-market credentials and argue that no, one cannot redistribute, the free market is optimal and fair and pays everyone their marginal product and yada yada yada.&lt;p&gt;Funny, that amnesia in the middle.</text></comment>
<story><title>EU and Japan create world&apos;s biggest free trade zone</title><url>https://www.dw.com/en/eu-and-japan-create-worlds-biggest-free-trade-zone/a-47319521</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>zeroname</author><text>&amp;gt; Free trade is great when applied evenly.&lt;p&gt;Free trade is great even when applied unevenly.</text></item><item><author>drak0n1c</author><text>For those interested in why - Japan always had very high tariffs on cheese (40% on WTO, 37.5% on EU). In comparison, the US has a general tariff of 10% on cheese, with many exceptions making it 0%.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.customs.go.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;tariff&amp;#x2F;2019_2&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;e_04.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.customs.go.jp&amp;#x2F;english&amp;#x2F;tariff&amp;#x2F;2019_2&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;e_04.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hts.usitc.gov&amp;#x2F;?query=cheese&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;hts.usitc.gov&amp;#x2F;?query=cheese&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;Similarly high tariffs across the board on most imports has been the norm in Japan for decades, with many agricultural products also having quota limits. This led to potato shortages in 2017.&lt;p&gt;Free trade is great when applied evenly. If it takes reciprocative pressure from the US to cause others think differently and change the status quo, so be it.</text></item><item><author>TorKlingberg</author><text>Japan has avoided the madness of tariffs and trade wars that has affected the west recently. Instead they have been quietly negotiating trade deals with everyone and generally getting along. Good on them!&lt;p&gt;Also it includes cheese, which will make westerners in Japan very happy.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>monetus</author><text>This &amp;#x27;great&amp;#x27; only applies to society as a super-organism.  Are you really suggesting uneven trade has no casualties on the individual level?</text></comment>