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[|Free Trade vs. Fair Trade by Richard A. Cheatham] - This article was taken from the Free Liberal and the author believes that free trade is the way to go. The author wonders who gives the third party in fair trade the authority to dub the trade "fair". He says fair trade focuses on third world countries and predjudice boundaries and complicates the trade farther than logic can defend it. Normally governments put fair trade restrictions into place by using tarriffs, subcidides and licensing. Free trade puts more emphasis on the actual traders than the world around them. The traders can trade for what they want without having to report to anyone else. There are pros and cons to each side, as presented in the article. In the end however, Cheatham prefers the simpler method of free trade.

[|Australia and New Zealand buy more fair trade coffee] - The fair trading of coffee has been a trend for supporters of fair trade. Many homes and coffee shops like Starbucks only buy fair trade coffee. This means that the workers growing and harvesting the coffee get fair wages and are paid a decent price for the work they put out. This article is about how even in one of the worst economic years ever, fair trade coffee sales have spiked by 15%. The now AU$5.4 billion being put in to fair trade has helped farmers invest in many community projects. Fair trade product sales have also spiked in eastern Europe and in South Africa and products are now available in 60 countries. Other than coffee, fair trade cocoa sales have grew by 35% and fair trade sugar increased by 57%. As the global economy continues to recover, fair trade products seems to have a great future.

[|A Brief History of NAFTA by Andrea Ford] NAFTA stands for North American Free Trade Agreement. It was put into place in 1994 by the Clinton administration to promote growth in trade between the U.S, Canada and Mexico. This was accomplished by removing most of the tariffs, and restrictions and making specific agreements of the agricultural and automobile trade. But, like most things, there has been praise and criticism for the agreements. Agricultural trade going both ways has grown incredibly since NAFTA has been put into place. Also, trade stemming from the NAFTA agreement account for 80% of trade for Canada and Mexico and one third for the U.S. But some argue that NAFTA promotes American countries to send their work or Mexico. NAFTA was back in the news again during the 2008 presidential election when both Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama blamed NAFTA for some loss of American jobs. New terms may be negotiated but NAFTA doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

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