Abstract
For the past 20 years the world has seen a proliferation of Regional Free Trade Agreements. Some Indonesian economists are criticizing the negative effects of this “neo-liberal” thinking, instead they promote measures of protection to defend domestic industries. Every citizen must bea patriotand a nationalist, and not be a servant of great foreign economic powers. However, the greater majority of economists are for the idea of free trade, since it can bring prosperity to the people through the gains from trade. These economists are also nationalists. However, the controversy between free trade and protectionism has a long history, since the time of Mercantilism and Adam Smith. The author of this paper found out that the origin of this controversy is the misunderstanding of the term “free trade”. In practice “free trade” means liberalizing up to a certain point, because in each free trade agreement there are provisions about trade defence mechanism. There is only one example of real free trade, where there are no economic borders between countries, where there is an economic and monetary union (Euro), and that is the European Union.The paper concludes with chapter on Indonesia.
Bahasa Abstract
Selama 20 tahun terakhir, dunia telah melihat proliferasi Perjanjian Perdagangan Bebas Regional. Beberapa ekonom Indonesia mengkritik efek negatif dari pola pikir "neo-liberal" ini, justru mereka mempromosikan langkah-langkah perlindungan untuk membela industri dalam negeri. Setiap warga negara harus menjadi patriot dan nasionalis, dan tidak menjadi hamba kekuatan ekonomi asing yang besar. Namun, sebagian besar ekonom condong pada ide perdagangan bebas, karena dapat membawa kemakmuran bagi rakyat melalui keuntungan dari perdagangan. Ekonom ini juga nasionalis. Namun, kontroversi antara perdagangan bebas dan proteksionisme memiliki sejarah panjang, sejak zaman Merkantilisme dan Adam Smith. Penulis makalah ini menemukan bahwa asal kontroversi ini adalah kesalahpahaman dari istilah "perdagangan bebas". Dalam prakteknya "perdagangan bebas" berarti liberalisasi sampai titik tertentu, karena dalam setiap perjanjian perdagangan bebas ada ketentuan tentang mekanisme pertahanan perdagangan. Ada satu contoh dari perdagangan bebas yang nyata, di mana tidak ada batas ekonomi antar negara, di mana ada penyatuan ekonomi dan moneter (Euro), dan itu yaitu Uni Eropa. Artikel ini diakhiri dengan bab tentang Indonesia.
References
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Recommended Citation
Tarmidi, Lepi T.
(2014)
"Perdagangan Bebas Versus Proteksionisme,"
Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi: Vol. 9:
Iss.
2, Article 3.
Available at:
https://scholarhub.ui.ac.id/jke/vol9/iss2/3
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