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trade policy

trade policy

28 3.2
Government rules about buying and selling goods and services with other countries
  • noun
  • /treɪd ˈpɒlɪsi/
translation icon : política comercial
  • The GATT contains rules supervising national trade policies that affect goods as they move in international commerce.
  • strategic trade policy
  • protectionist trade policies
  • free trade policy

We need to open up our trade policy for free trade with all countries.

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Examples

  • To a trade specialist, trade policy serves the general objective of raising economic welfare.

    Academic text (1992)
  • It's difficult to predict how Trump's trade policies will work.

  • We need to open up our trade policy for free trade with all countries.

  • The example of agriculture suggests that trade policy decisions do not always make economic sense.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The last, and perhaps the most important trade policy instrument that is relevant to industrial policy, is international agreements.

    Academic text (1993)
  • For these reasons, it is particularly worrisome that American trade policy has been stalemated for four years.

    Academic text (1999)
  • America's bipartisan trade policy of the past 65 years is at risk.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The integration of environmental concerns into trade policy and vice versa raises a variety of complex conceptual and practical concerns.

    Academic text (1992)
  • Thus, Nepal's quest for an independent external trade policy is quite understandable.

    Academic text (1992)
  • The government plans to revise its trade policy to promote exports and improve economic growth.

Synonyms

national trading policy
vstrade policy
  • Formal
5.6

Rules a government makes about buying and selling goods with other countries

is the same concept but named in a shorter, more general form

How Protectionist

protectionism
17 7.0
trade policy
28 3.2
restraint of trade
  • Specialized
1 7.0
free trade
57 3.5

Surface Forms

trade policy singular

Morphology

trade + policy

The meaning of 'trade policy' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'trade' (the activity of buying and selling, especially across borders) with 'policy' (a plan or set of principles). This straightforward noun-noun composition is cross-linguistically common and follows normal English compounding patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both words would readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Trade policy comes from the image of a government standing at a market gate: trade means buying and selling across borders and policy means the rules they make about what is allowed through the gate. So, trade policy today means a government's official 'rules' about 'foreign trade'.