Free Trade: Prosperity for all? | Global 3000

NAFTA, ASEAN, MERCOSUR and GAFTA - more than 3,200 multinational or bi-national agreements exist today. But what benefits do free trade agreements really bring? Their supporters say that by giving more freedom to business, such agreements generate more trade. And that this, in turn, leads to more jobs and prosperity. But critics say the only ones who really benefit are large companies. The NAFTA agreement between Mexico, Canada and the US came into force in 1994. But it didn't create the prosperity that was promised. Instead, some 850,000 jobs were lost in the US alone. In the Mexican agrarian sector up to 2 million were wiped out.

More from this edition of Global 3000: http://www.dw.com/en/global-3000-the-globalization-program-2016-03-07/e-19057198-9798