Globalisation · Discuss both views · Band 7.5
Does Free Trade Benefit Everyone?
The question, a model answer written to the band 7.5 descriptors, why it scores that band against the 4 official criteria, topic vocabulary, and a common mistake to avoid.
Discuss both views
Some people believe that free trade agreements between countries benefit everyone involved, while others argue that they mainly benefit large corporations at the expense of local workers. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience. Write at least 250 words.
Model answer (band 7.5)
Written to the band 7.5 descriptors, not by a real examiner. Read it for structure and language, then write your own in your own words. Examiners can tell a memorised essay from an original one.
Free trade agreements remain one of the most contested aspects of globalisation, with supporters and critics pointing to genuinely different, if partial, evidence to support their respective positions.
Supporters argue that removing trade barriers allows countries to specialise in producing what they do most efficiently, lowering prices for consumers and expanding markets for exporters on both sides of an agreement. Historical examples, such as the expansion of trade within the European Union, show measurable increases in overall economic growth and consumer choice following reduced barriers, benefits that proponents argue are ultimately shared, even if unevenly, across the entire economy rather than captured by a single group.
Critics, however, point to the uneven distribution of these benefits within each country. While consumers and large corporations capable of operating across borders typically gain, workers in industries that cannot compete with cheaper foreign production, such as domestic manufacturing in several developed economies, have frequently lost jobs as production shifts to countries with lower labour costs, and the overall national benefit often masks serious regional and industry-specific harm concentrated in particular communities. Critics also argue that large corporations, with far greater resources and legal expertise than individual workers or small businesses, are best positioned to exploit the opportunities trade agreements create, widening inequality even as aggregate wealth increases nationally.
In my opinion, free trade does generate genuine overall economic benefit, but governments have a responsibility to actively redistribute some of these gains toward workers and regions directly harmed by increased competition, rather than assuming the benefits will trickle down naturally and evenly on their own.
In conclusion, free trade benefits economies in aggregate, but without deliberate redistribution policies, those gains risk being captured disproportionately by corporations rather than shared broadly.
Why this answer scores band 7.5
Mapped to the 4 official IELTS Writing criteria.
- Task Response: both views are developed with specific economic reasoning (specialisation, regional job losses) before a clear, policy-oriented personal opinion.
- Coherence and Cohesion: logical view-by-view structure with a synthesising opinion that adds a concrete policy response rather than simply picking a side.
- Lexical Resource: precise economic vocabulary ('trade barrier', 'labour cost', 'redistribution policy') used accurately and with genuine topic command.
- Grammatical Range and Accuracy: sustained accuracy across long, complex sentences, including comparative and concessive structures.
Useful vocabulary & collocations
Phrases used in the model answer that lift Lexical Resource naturally.
Common mistake on this type of question
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