All this will take time, and the new members will not have to lower trade barriers for several years in line with ASEAN's free-trade agenda.

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The need for Arab leaders to speed up reforms, scrap trade barriers and seek new ways of boosting sluggish industries has clearly taken on a heightened sense of urgency in light of the uprisings that swept through the region during the Arab Spring.

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Finally, the plan even includes a provision for free trade, giving the President renewed fast track authority to negotiate further trade agreements eliminating foreign trade barriers and opening new markets for American goods.

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But without the risk of a dispute-settlement case, other countries would feel free to maintain whatever trade barriers they liked against imports from the recalcitrant country, or even to put up some new ones.

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Lowering barriers to trade among nations helps kick-start innovation by helping boost the investment required for new goods and services.

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Just as periods of economic uncertainty almost invariably lead to calls for the very trade barriers that reduce economic opportunity, so do downturns always coincide with overdone worry concerning the ability of new labor force entrants to achieve economically in ways that previous entrants once did.

FORBES

The NEI will help meet my Administration's goal of doubling exports over the next 5 years by working to remove trade barriers abroad, by helping firms -- especially small businesses -- overcome the hurdles to entering new export markets, by assisting with financing, and in general by pursuing a Government-wide approach to export advocacy abroad, among other steps.

WHITEHOUSE: Executive Order 13534 - National Export Initiative