At the international level, there are two important open databases developed by international organizations for policymakers and businesses: as soon as they go beyond the regional level, they need help. The World Trade Organization is intervening on this point. This international body contributes to the negotiation and implementation of global trade agreements. Not surprisingly, financial markets see the other side of the coin. Free trade is an opportunity to open up another part of the world to local producers. For example, one nation could allow free trade with another nation, with the exception of exceptions that prohibit the importation of certain drugs that have not been authorized by its regulators, or animals that have not been vaccinated or processed foods that do not meet their standards. The world has received almost more free trade from the next round, known as the Doha Round agreement. If successful, Doha would have reduced tariffs for all WTO members in terms of area. Together, these agreements mean that, according to the government, about half of the goods that arrive in the United States are duty-free. The average import duty on industrial goods is 2%.

For more than two decades, NAFTA has supported jobs and the economy in the United States. Successful negotiations to update NAFTA should expand, not reduce, the many benefits that this U.S. trade agreement has already created. First, the customs duties and other rules which are maintained in each of the signatory parties to a free trade area and which are applicable at the time of the establishment of such a free trade area shall not be higher or more restrictive for trade with non-parties to such a free trade area than customs duties and other rules which existed in the same signatory parties before the establishment of the free trade area. . . .