Watch the video and complete the gaps


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Every day, a network of ships, trucks and planes move
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massive quantities of goods the world.
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Your car might South Korea,
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and your T-shirt from Bangladesh.
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All countries , sell products and services
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abroad and import buy goods and services foreign trading partners.
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These goods are manufactured items or agricultural commodities. Services,
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a dynamic and growing part of trade, refer to all intangible goods
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such as advertising and telecommunication.
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But the trade network is sellers and buyers.
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The system of worldwide trade is an intricate web
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in which lengthy supply chains allow products ,
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assembled, packaged and sold in different parts of the world.
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The materials for your phone or shoes or the tuna fish you had for lunch
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might have been produced one country, processed in another country,
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assembled in a third country and packaged somewhere else.
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All before getting to your local store,
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how does this make sense?
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Why can't countries just make their own phones, shoes or tuna
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fish and provide more jobs in business domestically?
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the 19th century, most European countries tried to do just
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that prioritizing self-sufficiency in a system called mercantilism.
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Mercantilism aimed to maximize exports, minimize imports,
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and increase the country's .
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This system led to strict tariffs, or taxes on imports, as a way
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to not only discourage bringing in goods from abroad, but profit off it.
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Mercantilism created barriers to international trade.
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Countries aim to produce as on their own,
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including things they weren't able to make efficiently.
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In the late 18th century, so-called classical economists refuted
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these long held beliefs, championing the idea that societies should trade
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with one another to be because of comparative advantage.
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The idea that when countries focus on making things,
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they're comparatively an import, the rest everyone benefits.
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This is known as specialization, and when countries don't have to spend
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time and resources producing textiles or wine, for example,
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there's more room for them to innovate and create entirely new products.
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These classical economists argued that it was counterproductive
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to judge a country's power on how much gold it could amass.
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Today, we measure countries in economies - their ability
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to utilize their limited resources for maximum value.
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This metric is Gross Domestic Product, which totals
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the sum of all the final goods and services a country produces in a year.
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Each country's human, physical, technological
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and financial resources determine what that country can produce efficiently
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and successfully.
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Costa Rica exporting pineapples and coffee, while Germany exports
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millions of cars and computers. With the acceptance of these new ideas.
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International trade took off.
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Measuring GDP instead of just gold helped boost trade and grow economies.
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At the same time,
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advances in technology and travel made remote markets much more .
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Massive container ships, cargo planes and cheap, instantaneous
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communication connected the world's producers with millions of new customers.
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And after World War Two,
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the newly formed United Nations created the General Agreement on Tariffs
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and trade, or get this agreement, substantially lowered trade barriers
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like tariffs and created rules to dictate how countries should trade freely.
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The GATT became
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the World Trade Organization and tried to eliminate
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even more obstacles to keep the changing world.
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The WTO expanded the definition
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of trade to include not just goods but services, and to create rules
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governing intellectual property such as copyright or a patent.
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The WTO is also an arena for countries to the rules and regulations
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of international trade
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and lodge complaints if they believe those rules aren't followed.
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According to the principle of comparative advantage,
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if one country can't sell a high quality product at a reasonable price point
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or new technology, make the business uncompetitive,
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It will not succeed.
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Its stores or factories might be forced to close and jobs will be lost.
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That country must then
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adjust its economy around something it can be comparatively good at.
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This is the nature of international trade.
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However, some countries and industries are accused of skirting
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the rules of international trade, and that's where the WTO tries to come in.
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For example, in the United States, labor unions argue the WTO doesn't
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adequately protect U.S.
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wages from being undercut by unfair trade practices in China.
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And some developing countries say the WTO rules
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don't take into consideration their unique circumstances.
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For example, agricultural subsidies provided by wealthy governments
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make it hard for sellers from smaller or poorer countries to reasonably export
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their crops to those countries.
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The WTO has failed to solve these problems.
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They are especially hard to address
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because changes to the rules require consensus among the WTO's
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164 member countries.
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Some countries
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to address their particular needs and trade strategies.
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, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
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known as NAFTA, was designed to facilitate more trade
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among the United States, Mexico and Canada.
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NAFTA provided a blueprint for similar types of agreements
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between other countries.
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From just 1990 to 2015,
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world trade volume increased
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from 3.5 trillion to 19 trillion.
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International trade has created a tightly interconnected world economy
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that's given more people than ever access to and better goods and services.
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It's created millions of jobs and strengthened
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international connections leading to global stability.
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At the same time, trade can hurt those individuals,
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companies and communities where imports make it impossible
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for local firms to compete against better or cheaper goods from somewhere else.
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Trade will inevitably
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create , but it is inseparable from modern life.
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The challenge, then, for policymakers is to assist those
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who have been disadvantaged with support and the training for new jobs
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so everyone can continue to benefit from the system that is given more choices
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to consumers and more work for producers in every corner of the world.