Free trade is trade within and between countries that flows without government intervention. That means no government incentives to growers and producers, such as subsidies or tax breaks, and no so-called 'barriers' to trade – such as import taxes (tariffs) or limits on the amounts imported (quotas).

Making trade completely free would mean removing all forms of government intervention and protection and opening up borders to unlimited amounts of imported goods. In developing countries the cost is often poverty and inequality.

The true cost

At the moment, trade rules are stacked in favour of rich countries. Rich countries want to keep protecting a few sectors in their own countries, such as their farmers, while using international trade talks to prise open poor countries' markets.

In return, poor countries want to protect their vulnerable sectors and promote new industries - but are being prevented from doing so.

By locking in essentially irreversible 'free trade' policies, rich countries and big business are set to bring misery to millions of poor people.

Surely if it’s free is must be good?

No country has ever become a 'developed' country by pursuing free trade policies from the outset. Rich countries are still fiercely protectionist.

Rich countries and business leaders say free trade is the best way out of poverty for developing countries. But there is little evidence to support this – in fact the opposite is true:

• Countries that have rapidly opened their markets to free trade, such as Haiti, Nepal, Mali, Zambia and Peru, have very poor records on poverty reduction and economic growth.
• On the other hand, countries such as Taiwan and South Korea chose to protect their domestic industries rather than completely open their economies to global trade. And when they did choose to open up, they did it on their own terms and at their own speed. This not only produced higher economic growth, but resulted in lower poverty and inequality.

These agreements have grave implications for poorer nations, increasingly limiting their ability to adequately govern their own economies, undermining development policies and potentially leaving the poorest people even worse off than before.