November 12, 2011
An NYT piece on Japan’s plans to join trade talks that include the United States and other Asian countries used the phrase “free trade” six times, including in the headline. These deals will not lead to literal free trade, since they are unlikely to do much reduce the barriers that protect highly paid professionals like doctors and lawyers. Also, they are also likely result in the increase of some protectionists barriers, most notably patent and copyright protection, which are high priorities for the United States.
Therefore it would be more accurate to simply call them “trade” agreements. This would also save space.
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