The impact of Free Trade Agreements on Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges

Zihan Wang

2025

Abstract

Amid deepening globalization, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have evolved into rule-driven instruments prioritizing intellectual property, environmental standards, and comprehensive governance, exemplified by the USMCA. While FTAs offer developing nations market access and technological inflows, they pose challenges, such as heightened competition threatening local industries, regulatory pressures from stringent environmental clauses, and risks of eco-nomic dependency. This research found that developing countries must strengthen domestic industrial competitiveness through innovation and skill development while reinforcing social safety nets to mitigate inequality to navigate these trade-offs. Regional alliances and specialized negotiation teams can enhance bargaining power against asymmetric terms. Simultaneously, adaptive environmental policies and cross-border knowledge-sharing frameworks are critical to balancing economic growth with ecological sustainability. By adopting proactive strategies, industrial upgrading, institutional capacity-building, and multilateral cooperation-developing economies can transform FTA challenges into catalysts for equitable, climate-resilient development.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Wang Z. (2025). The impact of Free Trade Agreements on Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science - Volume 1: ICPLSS; ISBN 978-989-758-785-6, SciTePress, pages 454-459. DOI: 10.5220/0014384400004859

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icplss25,
author={Zihan Wang},
title={The impact of Free Trade Agreements on Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science - Volume 1: ICPLSS},
year={2025},
pages={454-459},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0014384400004859},
isbn={978-989-758-785-6},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science - Volume 1: ICPLSS
TI - The impact of Free Trade Agreements on Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges
SN - 978-989-758-785-6
AU - Wang Z.
PY - 2025
SP - 454
EP - 459
DO - 10.5220/0014384400004859
PB - SciTePress