In 2009, about 11.1 percent of our goods were exported, and in 2008, about 13.5 percent of our goods were exported. The decline in import and export trade in 2009 was one of the consequences of the global recession. However, limiting trade is not necessarily a bad thing. “Because it is possible that with free trade some companies will go bankrupt and some workers will lose their jobs, it is useful to summarize some of the questionable reasons and some of the good reasons for limiting trade” (Robert) . A questionable reason would be the protection of jobs within companies that might be cheaper to import. We might not trade with another country because the good might be important to our security or national identity. We also can't trade with another country because it allows child labor or has comparative advantages through worker safety rules and environmental laws. “Even though free trade clearly has short-term costs, when people lose their jobs to foreign competition and need to retrain for new ones, the long-term benefits generally outweigh those -this” (Robert). This happens when other countries find a better or more profitable way to produce the good. As a result, the people who produce the good here risk losing their jobs. In this case, protecting our industries is not beneficial for several reasons. For capitalism to work, we must reward those who succeed and punish those who fail. If the government does not trade internationally, our industries will become lax and will not produce the best products at the lowest price. Additionally, if other countries see that we are protecting our industries from competition, they might do the same. Instead of everyone benefiting, we risk returning to the days before commerce and losing consumption opportunities. Countries have developed... good paper, what we call customs tariffs. The second method uses a quota. It is “a legal restriction on the amount of property entering a county” (Robert). Finally, the last method is to simply make the import too expensive. This method is most often used for agricultural products and becomes apparent when the rules become ridiculous. “While it is perfectly legitimate for a country to want to inspect a shipment for certain diseases, insects or parasites, countries will sometimes use these inspections as a pretext to limit imports” (Robert). Many examples of these non-tariff barriers exist for logical reasons, and some are dubious. Works Cited Guell, Robert C. “17 International trade” Issues in Economics Today. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. N. pag. PrintRadcliffe, B.. Np. Internet. March 6 2014. .