The thing about Free Trade agreements is that developed countries always manage to convince developing countries to cut their trade barriers and subsidies while failing to do it themselves. Take NAFTA -- the North American Free Trade Agreement imposed a very precise timeline for a 15 year rollback on Mexican tariffs on U.S. corn. It simultaneously included a general non-binding promise to roll back agricultural subsidies whenever the US feels like it. As a consequence, NAFTA has devasted Mexican farmers and agricultural workers because our subsidies let us export super-cheap corn to Mexico with the new low trade barriers.
I'm a "free trader" - but what we call 'Free Trade' rarely is.
