A Free trade Agreement (FTA) is an agreement between two or more countries where the countries agree on certain obligations that affect trade in goods and services, and protections for investors and intellectual property rights, among other topics.
Not necessarily free but means that there is an agreement to promote trade between the two contracting parties. There is no ‘one size fits all’ FTA, each is negotiated individually and will contain many layers. There will be qualifying criteria for the terms of the FTA hence the reason that, even with an FTA, paperwork is still required – in order to prove eligibility to the conditions agreed.