How can treaties be considered free trade?

[Anarchist420]

How the hell are NAFTA and the WTO free trade? So many people consider them free trade, but obviously, they put limits on trade. The WTO is anti-"dumping" and forces its member nations to not let patents expire before they've been in effect for 20 years. If the whole world has to have 20 year long patents, then that kills free trade. Part of the reason you should have free trade is because of patents. And so you can buy/sell foreign goods at insanely low prices.

They're managed trade, but why do so many people think they're free trade?

 

[Zebo]

China does not respect patents/trademarks/copyright anyway so I'm not sure of teeth of any agreement. I can find a knock off of almost anything on ebay. Calloway clubs, Leopold scopes, polo shirts whatever.

 

[IronWing]

NAFTA is designed to allow the free movement of capital, not necessarily goods and certainly not labor. The essence of NAFTA is to facilitate international labor arbitrage.

On the intellectual property side, the agreements are designed to hasten the American slide from a productivity based economy to a neo-feudal rent based economy.