Global trade involves winners and losers. This fact has made it one of the most important policy issues of our time. With its global economic power and reach, United States has generally favored free trade. However, each year since the early 1970s, the United States has had a negative balance of trade, consuming more goods from abroad than it was shipping overseas. President Trump has labeled this as unfair and has imposed tariffs on China and threatened to do the same with Mexico.

**Question:
What is free trade, and what is tariff? Would tariffs benefit or hurt the U.S. economy and consumers? (support your answer with facts or evidence from reputable academic or news medial sources). Do you agree with President Trump’s position on tariffs?

Since the Great Depression, the U.S, government has taken responsibility for promoting and sustaining economic growth and stability. It does so largely through two approaches addressed in this session: fiscal policy, which refers to the government’s taxing and spending policies, and monetary policy, which refers to government efforts to control the money supply. The first part of this unit will dentify the broad reasons government gets involved in the economy, describe how the government uses monetary, fiscal and regulatory policies to influence the economy, and explain why economic policy is often controversial.
Foreign Policy

Unlike other policy areas, foreign policy rests on relations with actors outside the country rather than within. As a result, the chief instruments of foreign policy differ from those of domestic policy. This section will examine how foreign policy is designed to promote security, prosperity, and humanitarian goals, identify the major players in foreign-policy making, and describe their roles Describe the means the United States uses to carry out its foreign policy.

National security is increasingly more than an issue of U.S. military power. It is also a question of America’s position in the global economy. It is also about international trade and Americas’ global economic power. Hence, this session will also trace the evolution of American trade policy during the post-World War II era, concentrating first on the factors that enabled the United States in the immediate post-war period to become the world’s unrivaled economic power and then looking at the factors that eroded that position. The section will conclude with an examination of the politics and policies of trade, including NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) and more recent trade agreements.