Case Studies

Question 1

Free Trade

Answer 1

Australia and New Zealand have a very strong free trade relationship through the Closer Economic Relations (CER) Agreement, signed in 1983.

Key features:

Almost no tariffs or quotas between them — goods and many services move freely.

It covers not just trade in goods, but also services, investments, and even labor mobility (people can move and work across both countries quite easily).

They even recognize each other’s product standards — meaning if a product is approved in Australia, it’s automatically accepted in New Zealand, and vice versa. This saves companies a lot of time and money.

Impact:

It has created one of the most integrated economies in the world.

Businesses can operate almost like they are in the same country.

Workers (like engineers, teachers, etc.) can easily get jobs across the border.

Question 2

Fair trade

Answer 2

-Football workers in Pakistan
-Cacao Farmers in Ghana

Question 3

Foreign aid

Answer 3

Bill Gates strongly believes that foreign aid was instrumental in curing diseases such as small pox due to the vaccinations provided by wealthy countries to countries part of west Africa.

Diambisa Moyo have identified certain problems with foreign aid such as poor planning of projects with lead to an extreme waste of resources (such as the Millenium project by Jeffery Saccs in 2005),

Not following up on the foreign aid and poor countries depending on foreign aid lifelong.
Ex. If foreign aid has been provided to a country for educating youth, and is in fact successful, even after bypassing corruption and government officials, there is no way to do anything with that education as there are no job opportunities after graduating. This keeps the poor countries in a vicious cycle known as the poverty trap and keeps extending to a point of no return, that is why these people may believe “dead aid” and that it is causing more harm to these countries than good.

Question 4

Poverty Cycle Solution

Answer 4

Kiberia, Kenya residents did community empowerment by building public restrooms, schools, etc. which reduced disease & improved literacy rate

Question 5

Economic Growth Country

Answer 5

Norway used its oil wealth to fund social programs that improved people’s quality of life.
Specifically, the government used oil profits (through taxes and investments) to provide:

Free healthcare for everyone

Free or heavily subsidized education, including university

Strong unemployment benefits (if you lose your job, you still get financial support)

Pensions for the elderly so people can retire comfortably

Paid parental leave and childcare support for families

Public housing and social welfare programs for people in need