In this series of four Grow through International Expansion podcasts and articles, our host Oliver Dowson explores all the key aspects of Free Trade Agreements, adding in the missing bits that the selective explanations from politicians and many journalists omit, stripping away false optimism and pessimism, with the aim of presenting the full and clear explanations that entrepreneurs, consumers and taxpayers need.

There are now more than 400 Trade Agreements in force globally, some of them relatively new but others that were negotiated decades ago. For this episode, Oliver has been reading up many of the academic studies that have been done into the impact of established “deals” – the successes and failures – to see what can be learnt.

Such lessons are useful from two points of view.

One is governmental – when it comes to negotiating new Trade Agreements, what risks need to be avoided and which opportunities grasped. You, our audience, many of you entrepreneurs, all of you consumers and taxpayers, will be more interested in the second reason for looking at the history of trade deals – which is to get a better informed understanding of what benefits can realistically be expected, and the risks that could turn a trade deal negative.

If you missed earlier episodes, you can find them on our Grow through International Expansion platform, https://growinternational.org . Our platform is independent, carries no advertising and is not for profit – we seek to deliver useful, valuable content, essential for all those who have interest in international business and global trade.