Free Trade or Managed Trade?

Free Trade or Managed Trade?
November 7, 2011 by Laurence M. Vance

The "free trade" agreement that was just signed between the US and South Korea is simply another managed trade agreement. Don't let the name fool you; read the agreement, as I did. A real free trade agreement would take no more than a paragraph or a page at most.

What is language like this doing in a free trade agreement? "For greater certainty, a Party may: (a) raise a customs duty to the level established in its Schedule to Annex 2-B following a unilateral reduction; or (b) maintain or increase a customs duty as authorized by the Dispute Settlement Body of the WTO."

Or this: "duties on originating goods provided for in the items in staging category H in a Party's Schedule shall be removed in 15 equal annual stages beginning on the date this Agreement enters into force, and such goods shall be duty-free, effective January 1 of year 15."

And check out the current 220-page US tariff schedule.