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How Politics Affect International Trade

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Submitted By DebbieAckerman
Words 618
Pages 3
1.Politics

As with many things the government of a country controls how any business in that country will operate, which directly gives them influence on any form of trade happening in that country. The government has the power to do so through tariffs, surcharges, and import licenses. Import tariffs provide some protection against dumping by foreign manufacturers. The relationships governments build with each other also affects international trade and can go both ways good and bad. When one goes as far back as the Worlds Wars, one can clearly see a perfect example of this. Following the wars and the Depression, international trade and finance had been in retreat for decades, and protectionist forces seemed dominant in all major economies. National governments seemed bent on heavily restricting international economic transactions to preserve economic stability and fuller employment. As a result the Bretton Woods institutions appeared stillborn, rendered irrelevant by the highly restrictive trade and exchange control. Trade policies developed in the five largest trading economies – those of Britain, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan and the United States – new treaties were put in place and relationships had to be restored in most parts of the world. Since the end of the Second World War, US presidents have to varying degrees embraced global trade expansion and pushed for lower tariffs, increased trade flows and a multilateral regime based on fairness, transparency and the rule of law. Policy-makers have generally agreed that trade liberalization increased opportunities for US businesses and created jobs. A little closer to home and a little more in our time line one can look at South Africa in the apartheid era. Many other countries raised sanctions and boycotts against the South African government as a means of ending the suppression. The pattern of

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