Free Trade Does NOT Require More Rules and Obligations

My comment on this Open Europe blog:

Patrick Barron said...

The French charge the British with the crime of desiring a larger free market but one without additional rules and obligations. If this is the charge, then there truly is a fundamental difference of opinion. Why does trading freely with more people in more countries require that the traders bail one another out of financial jams? As an American I desire to trade freely with my neighbor Mexico, for example, but I feel no obligation to bail Mexico out of its financial messes. This strikes at the heart of the matter. The UK can achieve everything it desires by leaving the EU and declaring itself a free trade nation. That means that the UK would NOT require reciprocal free trade agreements in order to allow goods from other countries to be brought into Britain duty free.