Abstract
A free trade system is a market form in which goods and services can be exchanged between and within countries without any kind of government restriction or regulation.
The free trade debate is obviously the most important debate of the 20th century. It has been very much politicized and the community divided itself into two main camps: The Economic Liberalists and the Neo-Mercantilists. To do a very quick statement, one is focusing on a total free trade system and the other wanted to put in place more regulation about trade organization.
The real question is about this organization is : Is free trade going to be beneficial to all or it will be the cause of diseases such as unemployment in developing countries for example. It raises the question of delocalization and everything that goes on with this notion. That is why autarky is facing free trade as liberalism is on opposition with mercantilism.
It is important to emphasis the fact that one or the other (free trade or autarky) is not completely good or completely wrong. It, at first, depends on the situation and can vary from a situation, from a country to an other.
The free trade between firms is in fact a total freedom in matter of regulation or interference by a government. Today, it simply means that international corporations can freely exchange in the all world.
