Free the Definition of Free Trade?

For what must be decades now we have been told that "Free Trade" takes few thousand page document, negotiates in secret over years to put together. It takes language so complex that no average person could comprehend what we're agreeing to in the (much touted) agreement. More jobs, more money, more security, better access to all the stuff we can't live without, that's what we're told. We should be thankful that our elected officials managed to put such a wondrous trade deal together for us. 

We should be...

Evaluated!
Medicated!
Institutionalized!
Re-Educated!

Or mybe we already are.

Free Trade means,

"I give you this and you give me that, do you agree?"

If yes, the deal is done. If no, the deal goes dead. It is a very simple convenience of exchange transaction.

This concludes all you will ever need to know, and all there is to know, about Free Trade.  It's just that simple. eBay is free trade.

Even a cave man could understand Free Trade!

We do not have a single Free Trade Agreement. Not a single one. We have managed trade, very managed, very specific legally managed trade with wording so complicated that we don't understand it. 

Why do you think that is? Moreover, why would we actually believe that these very lengthy documents¹ are what Free Trade looks like... 

• US - Australia FTA
• US - Bahrain FTA
• US - Chile FTA
• US - Colombia FTA
• DR-CAFTA: Includes US - Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, & Nicaragua
• US - Israel FTA
• US - Jordan FTA
• US - Korea FTA
• US - Morocco FTA
• NAFTA: Canada & Mexico
• US - Oman FTA
• US - Panama FTA
• US - Peru FTA
• US - Singapore FTA

Why would we be told that these are Free Trade when they are not? At the risk of sounding conspiratorial, because we are too dumb to know otherwise. It's a Repetition = Truth thing like suicide bombings. We hear something so often that we stop questioning the words. It's an established "fact", like...

1. Witches causing crop failure
2. Scurvy being caused by a virus
3. Bats are blind
4. Cutting to balance the humors
5. AIDS being caused by people in Africa having sex with monkeys

OK, the last one was a stretch, but if we hadn't been told otherwise by so many healthcare professionals, we would be believed that too. In the absence of facts, any fiction will due.

For instance, if the managed trade deal ends in disaster for one or both signatory nations, well hell, Blame Free Trade! Then, the people will demand Managed Trade, which is exactly what we have.

Take your pick Coke or Pepsi. Cast your vote, and I will wish you the very best (of what you're given).

We know the truth when we hear it, but if it is never spoken and never heard...

Any fiction will due.

Footnote:

1. Links to the specific trade agreemens can be found at Department of Commerce Free TradeAgreements ( www.trade.gov/fta/ )