There are many advantages of Finland being a member country of the WTO as well as a couple of disadvantages.
Global trade is a big driver of the Finland economy, as of 2017, about twenty-eight percent of Finland’s total employment was linked to their export industries. This means that being a part of the WTO allows Finland to grow its economy through global trade with little to no barriers. In the past several years, Finland has seen more domestic employment within these export industries as they are able to trade more and more on the global market.
Another advantage of being a member of the WTO are the lowered tariffs. The WTO prides itself on being able to lower tariffs on a global scale, and this proves advantageous for Finland. As other countries have low tariffs for imports and since Finland is a big exporting country, Finland is able to export more goods and services because the cost is reduced. This also leads to more world efficiency.
Finland also benefits from the openness of trade negotiations that the WTO promotes. A few years ago, several member countries of the Wto, including Finland, came together on an agreement to eliminate tariffs on new generation information technology products. The trade of these products is worth over one trillion dollars every year. This boosts the Finland economy as it leads to domestic growth in tech industries.
A disadvantage of being a member country includes a heavy dependency on the trade agreements of the WTO. During or after any kind of global depression, such as after the Financial Crisis, there is more global distrust in global trade and multilateralism which harms the Finland economy because a large portion of their economy is based on exports through the WTO. During times of crisis when countries tend to implement more protectionist policies to protect their own country and domestic industries--which hurt exporting industries such as Finland.
Another possible disadvantage is pressure, for non-developing countries such as Finland to spend money on other poorer countries in the WTO
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