The NYT wrongly referred to the new round of WTO negotiations and other recent trade pacts as “free-trade deals.” This is not accurate. These agreements actually increase many forms of protectionism, most notably they strengthen copyright and patent protections. While these deals have generally lowered barriers to trade in manufactured goods, thereby lowering the wages of manufacturing workers and non-college educated workers more generally, are not designed to eliminate barriers to trade more generally.
Newspapers could increase accuracy and save words by eliminating the adjective “free” from such discussions.
–Dean Baker
