{ "model": { "rank": 5837, "code": "thing-q200435", "model_id": "vr.tr.free-trade", "name": "free trade", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a free-trade arrangement or policy, assess how far it permits cross-border exchange without discriminatory trade barriers, and identify available actions within its conditions.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.MED", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q200435/", "tier": 2, "score": 64, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [], "aliasCount": 0, "merged": 0, "knownIn": 64, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q200435", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q200435", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-07T09:34:01Z", "providers": [ "Codex", "Grok" ], "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "usd": 0.00939726, "turns": 1, "seconds": 92.8, "error": null }, "codex": { "seconds": 83.8, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.3\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a07b35-ed62-7e40-8836-5e93f0644dbf\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: free trade\nRegistry id: vr.tr.free-trade\nPlane / domain: INF / INF.MED\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into this entry: (none)\n\nA V" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q200435", "registryId": "vr.tr.free-trade", "name": "free trade", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.MED" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q200435/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.free-trade", "name": "free trade", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a free-trade arrangement or policy, assess how far it permits cross-border exchange without discriminatory trade barriers, and identify available actions within its conditions.", "definition": "Free trade is a commercial-policy regime in which goods, services, and often capital move across political borders with tariffs, quotas, and other discriminatory barriers reduced or eliminated, typically under unilateral liberalization or reciprocal treaty, as distinct from the mere absence of any commercial law.", "scope_statement": "This model owns free trade as a condition, objective or arrangement governing cross-border exchange, including its participants, coverage, remaining barriers, practical accessibility and exceptions; this economic interpretation remains provisional because the registry supplies no definition.", "in_scope": [ "The jurisdictions, trade flows and goods or services to which free trade is claimed to apply", "The extent and conditions of tariff elimination and removal of quantitative restrictions", "Discriminatory regulatory barriers and procedures affecting practical market access", "Eligibility rules, exclusions, safeguards and other limits on access", "The distinction between announced commitments, implemented treatment and observed accessibility" ], "out_of_scope": [ "The complete legal instrument and institutional lifecycle of a trade agreement", "Domestic market competition and antitrust enforcement", "Migration rights and general freedom of capital movement", "Individual shipment execution, customs declarations and transport logistics", "The full macroeconomic model of trade, growth, employment and distribution", "Fair-trade certification and ethical sourcing standards" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "The exchange crosses jurisdictional borders; freedom to trade within a domestic market alone does not establish free trade in this model.", "A claim of free trade must identify the barriers removed and the flows covered; merely reducing a tariff establishes liberalisation but does not settle whether the resulting treatment qualifies as free trade.", "Preferential access for selected partners must be distinguished from access available to all partners; a free-trade claim does not by itself establish either reach.", "Internal trade liberalisation does not by itself establish a customs union; a shared external tariff is a separate property to record.", "Neither ethical sourcing certification nor the absence of all regulation is a defining test; assess whether applicable measures restrict covered exchange and on what basis." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Realisation form", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "policy objective | unilateral policy | reciprocal arrangement | observed trading condition", "why_it_matters": "Separates an aspiration or commitment from treatment that traders can actually obtain." }, { "name": "Participant and flow coverage", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Origin jurisdiction, destination jurisdiction, direction of trade and applicable partner group", "why_it_matters": "Access may differ by partner and direction, so a country-level label can conceal material restrictions." }, { "name": "Product and service coverage", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Named goods classifications, service sectors, service supply modes and explicit exclusions", "why_it_matters": "Free treatment for one category does not establish equivalent treatment for another." }, { "name": "Applied border charges", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Percentage of customs value or currency per specified quantity, by flow, classification and date", "why_it_matters": "Shows the charges actually applicable and distinguishes zero tariffs from remaining fees or other charges." }, { "name": "Quantitative restriction status", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "absent | quota-limited | prohibited | conditionally restricted | unknown, per covered flow", "why_it_matters": "Zero tariffs alone do not establish unrestricted access when quantities are capped or trade is prohibited." }, { "name": "Eligibility basis", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Unconditional treatment | origin-dependent preference | supplier-dependent access | other specified condition | unresolved", "why_it_matters": "Determines whether a particular trader, product or service can obtain the stated treatment." }, { "name": "Commitment implementation", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "proposed | adopted but not effective | phasing in | effective | suspended | expired | disputed", "why_it_matters": "Prevents future, suspended or contested access from being treated as currently available." }, { "name": "Preference utilisation", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Percentage of eligible trade value receiving preferential treatment, with period and denominator specified; not applicable where no preference exists", "why_it_matters": "Helps assess whether formal access is being used, while leaving the causes of non-use open to investigation." }, { "name": "Exceptional restriction exposure", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Applicable exceptions or temporary measures linked to their scope, trigger, authority and duration", "why_it_matters": "Identifies circumstances in which otherwise available access may be limited or withdrawn." } ], "affordances": [ "Test a free-trade claim against its stated partners, coverage, barriers and effective dates", "Determine whether a specified trade flow appears eligible for the claimed treatment and identify missing evidence", "Compare committed market access with implemented measures and observed trader experience", "Identify remaining restrictions and the changes required to remove or reduce them", "Flag exceptions, suspensions or phase-in milestones that require reassessment", "Route an access problem to the relevant verification, administrative review or dispute process" ] }, "sources": [ { "id": "wto-gatt", "title": "General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (including Art. I MFN and Art. XXIV regional arrangements)", "url": "https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/gatt47_01_e.htm", "what_it_supports": "Legal definition of non-discriminatory liberalization and the treaty test that separates an FTA from a customs union.", "url_status": "live" }, { "id": "krugman-obstfeld", "title": "International Economics: Theory and Policy", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "Trade-creation vs trade-diversion, tariff measurement, and the distinction between free trade and preferential liberalization." }, { "id": "bhagwati-free-trade", "title": "Free Trade Today (Princeton University Press, 2002)", "url": "", "what_it_supports": "Doctrinal sense of free trade versus fair trade, managed trade, and preferential 'spaghetti bowl' FTAs." }, { "id": "unctad-ntm", "title": "UNCTAD classification of non-tariff measures", "url": "https://unctad.org/topic/trade-analysis/non-tariff-measures", "what_it_supports": "How residual barriers are catalogued once tariffs fall, and why 'free trade' is not the same as zero regulation.", "url_status": "live" } ], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "free-trade-claim-and-reach", "name": "Free-trade claim and reach", "description": "Establishes what freedom of trade is being claimed, between whom and for which exchanges.", "rationale": "Free trade cannot be assessed without a bounded claim; broad labels can hide partner, sector and directional limits.", "layers": [ { "id": "claim-basis", "name": "Claim basis", "description": "Distinguishes a policy ideal, an operative commitment and an observed condition.", "findings": [ { "id": "meaning-of-free-trade", "name": "Meaning of free trade", "description": "Records the meaning and assessment criterion attached to the claim without presuming a universal threshold.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does free trade here mean an objective, a unilateral policy, a reciprocal arrangement or an observed condition?", "kind": "definition", "id": "meaning-of-free-trade-q01" }, { "text": "Whose statement or operative instrument establishes the claim, and which barrier-removal criterion does it use?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "meaning-of-free-trade-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "covered-exchanges", "name": "Covered exchanges", "description": "Locates the claim in specific trading relationships and categories.", "findings": [ { "id": "partners-products-and-directions", "name": "Partners, products and directions", "description": "Records the covered jurisdictions, directions, goods and services, including exclusions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which origin-destination pairs, goods classifications and service sectors or supply modes are covered?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "partners-products-and-directions-q01" }, { "text": "Which partners, territories, sectors or directions of exchange are excluded or receive different treatment?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "partners-products-and-directions-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "remaining-trade-barriers", "name": "Remaining trade barriers", "description": "Assesses the fiscal, quantitative and regulatory limits remaining within the claimed coverage.", "rationale": "A free-trade label is insufficient evidence of accessible trade, and tariff removal addresses only part of the assessment.", "layers": [ { "id": "border-charges-and-quantity-limits", "name": "Border charges and quantity limits", "description": "Examines charges and restrictions directly affecting the price or permitted volume of trade.", "findings": [ { "id": "applied-restriction-profile", "name": "Applied restriction profile", "description": "Records effective tariffs, relevant charges, quotas and prohibitions for a specified flow and date.", "questions": [ { "text": "What tariffs and other border charges actually apply to the specified flow, and how is each calculated?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "applied-restriction-profile-q01" }, { "text": "Do quotas, tariff-rate quotas, bans or restrictive licensing limit the quantity that may enter or leave?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "applied-restriction-profile-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "regulatory-market-access", "name": "Regulatory market access", "description": "Examines whether regulatory treatment or administrative procedures constrain access beyond explicit border barriers.", "findings": [ { "id": "regulatory-treatment-and-burden", "name": "Regulatory treatment and burden", "description": "Separates the existence of regulation from evidence about discrimination, restrictiveness and compliance burden.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which standards, approvals, domestic taxes or supplier restrictions treat covered foreign goods or services differently from comparable domestic ones?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "regulatory-treatment-and-burden-q01" }, { "text": "What evidence measures the access delays or costs caused by these requirements, and what remains attributable to other causes?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "regulatory-treatment-and-burden-q02" }, { "text": "What stated purpose and applicable assessment basis support evaluating a measure as permissible regulation or a trade barrier?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "regulatory-treatment-and-burden-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "eligibility-and-usable-access", "name": "Eligibility and usable access", "description": "Connects general market-access commitments to the conditions faced by an actual trade flow.", "rationale": "Nominally free treatment may depend on origin, supplier qualification or procedures that prevent an otherwise covered exchange from receiving it.", "layers": [ { "id": "qualification-for-treatment", "name": "Qualification for treatment", "description": "Identifies the substantive conditions and evidence required to obtain the claimed access.", "findings": [ { "id": "origin-and-supplier-eligibility", "name": "Origin and supplier eligibility", "description": "Records applicable origin rules or service-supplier qualifications and how eligibility is demonstrated.", "questions": [ { "text": "For preferential goods treatment, which origin, processing, value-content or cumulation rules apply, if any?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "origin-and-supplier-eligibility-q01" }, { "text": "For covered services, which supplier qualifications, establishment conditions or supply-mode limits determine access?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "origin-and-supplier-eligibility-q02" }, { "text": "What evidence must the trader provide to establish eligibility, and who can verify it?", "kind": "action", "id": "origin-and-supplier-eligibility-q03" } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-in-practice", "name": "Access in practice", "description": "Assesses whether eligible traders can obtain the treatment and what prevents its use.", "findings": [ { "id": "uptake-and-access-friction", "name": "Uptake and access friction", "description": "Records observed utilisation, refusals and procedural burdens without treating every trade cost as a policy barrier.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where preferences exist, what share of eligible trade receives them, over what period and using which eligibility denominator?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "uptake-and-access-friction-q01" }, { "text": "What evidence distinguishes non-use caused by compliance costs or access refusals from non-use caused by negligible benefits or commercial choices?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "uptake-and-access-friction-q02" }, { "text": "Which verification, documentation or administrative step could resolve the identified obstacle for this flow?", "kind": "action", "id": "uptake-and-access-friction-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "effective-treatment-and-exceptions", "name": "Effective treatment and exceptions", "description": "Tracks when access applies, what can interrupt it and how uncertainty or adverse treatment can be addressed.", "rationale": "An agent must distinguish promised access from current access and recognise when exceptions or temporary measures change available actions.", "layers": [ { "id": "implementation-over-time", "name": "Implementation over time", "description": "Relates formal commitments and transition schedules to currently applied treatment.", "findings": [ { "id": "operative-access-status", "name": "Operative access status", "description": "Records the current implementation state and any divergence between committed and applied access.", "questions": [ { "text": "On the assessment date, which commitments are effective, phasing in, suspended or expired for the specified flow?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "operative-access-status-q01" }, { "text": "Which current instruments or administrative notices establish that status, and do they conflict with observed treatment?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "operative-access-status-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "exceptions-and-recourse", "name": "Exceptions and recourse", "description": "Identifies restrictions that qualify access and the available paths for reviewing their application.", "findings": [ { "id": "qualified-or-interrupted-access", "name": "Qualified or interrupted access", "description": "Records applicable safeguards, trade remedies, other exceptions and restrictions, preserving uncertainty about contested applications.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which safeguards, trade remedies, security or other exceptions, or separately imposed restrictions currently qualify the claimed access?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "qualified-or-interrupted-access-q01" }, { "text": "What authority, trigger, affected coverage and duration are recorded for each measure?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "qualified-or-interrupted-access-q02" }, { "text": "What clarification, review or dispute route is available, who may invoke it and what evidence is required?", "kind": "action", "id": "qualified-or-interrupted-access-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "unilateral free trade (one state removes barriers without reciprocal concession)", "reciprocal bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA)", "regional or plurilateral FTA (e.g. CPTPP-type)", "customs-union free circulation with a common external tariff", "multilateral MFN liberalization (GATT/WTO)", "sectoral free trade (goods only, or a single sector such as information technology)", "preferential / partial-scope arrangements short of substantially all trade", "duty-free processing enclaves (free-trade zones / foreign-trade zones)" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of free trade this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-identifiers", "name": "Identifiers and schemes", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "scheme": "Wikidata", "value_or_pattern": "Q151798", "note": "Item commonly used for the economic-policy concept 'free trade'; confirm against the live item before treating as canonical." }, { "scheme": "WTO legal instrument", "value_or_pattern": "GATT 1994 Art. XXIV / Enabling Clause / GATS Art. V", "note": "Treaty provisions that authorize regional free-trade areas and customs unions as exceptions to MFN." }, { "scheme": "UN Treaty Series / national FTA short names", "value_or_pattern": "named instruments (USMCA, CPTPP, EU-Japan EPA, AfCFTA, etc.)", "note": "Each concluded FTA is a distinct legal object; there is no single product or taxonomic code for the policy itself." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-identifiers-q01", "text": "Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of free trade this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "GATT 1994, especially Art. I (MFN) and Art. XXIV (free-trade areas and customs unions) - World Trade Organization", "General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) Art. V - World Trade Organization", "Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) - World Trade Organization", "WTO Agreement on Safeguards, Anti-Dumping Agreement, and SCM Agreement - World Trade Organization (contingent protection that survives 'free trade')", "Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System (HS) - World Customs Organization (tariff classification used to implement duty elimination)", "Revised Kyoto Convention - World Customs Organization (customs procedures, including free zones)", "National implementing statutes and tariff schedules (e.g. U.S. USMCA Implementation Act; EU Common External Tariff / Union Customs Code)", "UNCTAD Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) and WTO Enabling Clause - non-reciprocal preference, not full free trade" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of free trade this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Negotiators schedule tariff phase-outs and rules of origin in an FTA text, then customs administrations apply preferential rates against a certificate of origin.", "Firms re-route supply chains to qualify as originating under an FTA (regional value content, tariff shift) rather than to minimize physical distance.", "Governments report bound and applied MFN rates to the WTO Integrated Database; applied rates near zero are treated as de facto free trade in that line.", "Bonded free-trade zones admit inputs duty-free for processing and re-export without liberalizing the rest of the customs territory.", "Dispute panels and domestic trade-remedy authorities still impose anti-dumping, countervailing, and safeguard duties inside otherwise 'free' regimes.", "Political campaigns use 'free trade' as a slogan for or against specific treaties (NAFTA/USMCA, TTIP, RCEP), not as a continuous policy variable." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of free trade this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-measurements", "name": "Typical measurements", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "quantity": "simple average applied MFN tariff", "typical_range": "about 2-8 in high-income industrial schedules; often 8-20 in many developing-country industrial schedules; peaks much higher on agriculture", "unit": "percent ad valorem" }, { "quantity": "trade-weighted average tariff", "typical_range": "usually below the simple average where trade concentrates in low-duty lines; often 1-10", "unit": "percent ad valorem" }, { "quantity": "preference margin (MFN minus preferential rate)", "typical_range": "0-15 for industrial goods under deep FTAs; larger and more variable in agriculture", "unit": "percentage points" }, { "quantity": "share of tariff lines duty-free", "typical_range": "often 50-99 under a mature FTA or high-income MFN schedule", "unit": "percent of HS lines" }, { "quantity": "merchandise trade-to-GDP ratio", "typical_range": "roughly 20-80 for large diversified economies; can exceed 100 for small open entrepôts", "unit": "percent" }, { "quantity": "coverage of non-tariff measures", "typical_range": "highly skewed: many lines have none recorded, some sectors (food, chemicals, autos) carry multiple NTMs", "unit": "count of NTMs per HS line, or share of trade covered" } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-measurements-q01", "text": "Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of free trade this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "Trade diversion: preferential duty elimination shifts imports from a more efficient outsider to a less efficient partner.", "Rules-of-origin compliance cost can exceed the preference margin, so utilization stays low and 'free trade' is unused.", "Import-competing adjustment: concentrated job and plant losses, with gains diffuse - a political-economy failure even when aggregate welfare rises.", "Contingent protection (anti-dumping, safeguards) re-raises barriers after liberalization.", "Regulatory chill or race-to-the-bottom claims on labour, environment, and food standards (empirically contested, politically potent).", "Investor-state dispute settlement in some FTA chapters can constrain domestic regulation.", "Asymmetric bargaining in North-South FTAs can lock in TRIPS-plus IP or procurement rules unrelated to border barriers.", "Sudden import surges and current-account stress where capital-account opening accompanies goods liberalization.", "Political backlash that reverses treaties or raises unilateral tariffs (e.g. Section 232/301-type measures).", "Confusion of geographic free zones with national free-trade policy, producing leakage, transshipment fraud, and origin washing." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of free trade this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ "European Union: 'free movement' inside a customs union and single market is deeper than an FTA (common external tariff, no origin certificates on internal trade, services/labour/capital).", "United States: public debate often contrasts 'free trade' with 'fair trade' or national-security tariffs; USMCA is an FTA, not a customs union.", "China and several Asian states: 'free trade zone' (FTZ) usually means a sub-national bonded enclave, not an FTA with another country.", "Africa: AfCFTA is a continental FTA still being phased in; several RECs (EAC, SACU) already operate as customs unions.", "Latin America: Mercosur is a (incomplete) customs union; Pacific Alliance and many U.S. treaties are FTAs without a common external tariff.", "South Asia and parts of Africa retain high applied agricultural tariffs and extensive NTMs despite FTA membership.", "WTO special and differential treatment lets developing members keep higher bound rates, so 'free trade' is not a uniform global bound.", "English 'free trade' vs Romance 'libre-échange' / 'librecambio' is the same doctrine; 'fair trade' / 'commerce équitable' is a separate certification movement." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of free trade this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.", "evidence": [ { "name": "customs union", "difference": "An FTA liberalizes internal trade but each member keeps its own external tariff; a customs union adds a common external tariff and typically free circulation without origin proofs." }, { "name": "common market / single market", "difference": "Goes beyond free trade in goods to free movement of services, capital, and labour plus substantial regulatory alignment; the EU internal market is the type case." }, { "name": "preferential trade agreement (partial scope)", "difference": "GATT Art. XXIV requires an FTA to cover 'substantially all trade'; a PTA or Enabling Clause deal may liberalize only selected lines." }, { "name": "fair trade (ethical certification)", "difference": "Fair-trade labels (e.g. Fairtrade International) are private standards on producer prices and labour; they are not a border-barrier regime and often coexist with tariffs." }, { "name": "free-trade zone / foreign-trade zone", "difference": "A geographic customs enclave with duty suspension for storage or processing; the rest of the country may remain protectionist." }, { "name": "autarky / protectionism", "difference": "Protectionism uses tariffs, quotas, or industrial policy to discriminate against imports; free trade is the reduction or removal of that discrimination." }, { "name": "managed trade", "difference": "Managed trade sets quantitative outcomes (VERs, local-content, bilateral deficit targets) rather than removing barriers and letting volumes be market-determined." }, { "name": "most-favoured-nation (MFN) treatment", "difference": "MFN is non-discrimination among partners at whatever tariff level; free trade is about the level of barriers. A country can have high but equal MFN tariffs." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of free trade this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Does the registry intend the economic concept of free trade, a policy doctrine or a particular class of arrangement, and how should its INF / INF.MED placement inform that interpretation?", "Which existing Vercy world model or neighbouring registry entry already owns this concept or part of its scope?", "Which authoritative criteria should distinguish free trade from partial liberalisation, and should those criteria differ for goods and services?", "Where should ownership of regulatory restrictions, trade remedies and sanctions be divided between this model and neighbouring models?", "Which sources and observations can reliably establish applied access, eligibility and utilisation for the particular jurisdictions and period being modelled?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 5, "layers": 9, "findings": 16, "questions": 28 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "work, medium or creative form", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a free trade, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a free-trade arrangement or policy, assess how far it permits cross-border exchange without discriminatory trade barriers, and identify available actions within its conditions.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted", "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Described in 64 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a free trade, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says", "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "What is seen is a copy or a performance, not the work. Recognising the work means recognising the content through whatever is carrying it." ], "relatedModels": [], "standing": "Described in 64 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one free trade from another, and a free trade from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a free trade sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a free trade from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a free trade passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a free trade between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a free trade, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a free trade is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a free trade says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a free trade contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a free trade and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "work-and-manifestation", "name": "Work, version and copy", "description": "Which level of free trade a statement is about.", "rationale": "The work, the edition, the file and the copy in hand are four things; rights and content attach to different ones.", "layers": [ { "id": "levels", "name": "Levels of the thing", "description": "Work, expression, manifestation and item, in plain terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "level-rules", "name": "What belongs at each level", "description": "Which facts hold for the work and which only for one copy.", "questions": [ { "id": "level-rules-q01", "text": "For free trade, which facts belong to the work itself, which to a version, and which to a single copy?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "level-rules-q02", "text": "What identifier exists at each level, and which one is being cited?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "versions", "name": "Versions, editions and variants", "description": "How versions differ and which is canonical to whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "version-record", "name": "Versions and canonicity", "description": "Differences that matter and who calls one authoritative.", "questions": [ { "id": "version-record-q01", "text": "Which versions or editions of free trade exist, and how do they differ substantively?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "version-record-q02", "text": "Who treats which version as authoritative, and for what purpose?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "authorship-and-rights", "name": "Authorship, rights and permitted use", "description": "Who made free trade and what may be done with it.", "rationale": "Rights are jurisdictional, time-limited and attached to a level, and an agent that ignores that will copy what it may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "authorship", "name": "Authorship and contribution", "description": "Who contributed what, and in what capacity.", "findings": [ { "id": "contribution-record", "name": "Contributors and roles", "description": "The people and bodies behind it, with their roles.", "questions": [ { "id": "contribution-record-q01", "text": "Who authored or contributed to free trade, in what roles, and how is that attested?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "contribution-record-q02", "text": "Where authorship is disputed or anonymous, what is recorded instead?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "rights", "name": "Rights and permissions", "description": "Which rights subsist, where, until when, and what they permit.", "findings": [ { "id": "rights-record", "name": "Rights, term and permitted acts", "description": "The regime in force and what it allows.", "questions": [ { "id": "rights-record-q01", "text": "What rights subsist in free trade, in which jurisdictions, and until when?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "rights-record-q02", "text": "Which acts are permitted without further permission, and which must an agent refuse?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a free trade came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a free trade and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a free trade is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a free trade, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a free trade, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a free trade is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }