I'd say don't try to bargain with a Sea Folk if you don't see what Zaida has done.

She made that Bargain with Elayne right before she left for the election, and she wanted it very badly. She's the one who brought up at the end with a deceptive "oh, by the way, maybe you could use Windfinders for your gateways. I could offer two.". When Elayne bit, she got the square mile of land. Zaida wanted this so badly she ended up handing Elayne nine Windfinders for as long as she didn't secure her throne.

And she won the election thanks to that lucrative bargain.

Of course she did!

Zaida got herself a tax free Travelling hub in the Westlands, beside acquiring direct entry to the Westlands' biggest market.

Elayne didn't see the implications until later (it's only implied she puzzled it out, so maybe she didn't). Birgitte sent her an alarmed warning through the bond when Elayne agreed that goods entering Andor from that land would pay Andoran taxes and Zaida immediately conceded that as if it didn't matter, as long as goods not entering Andor would be exempted. Of course she didn't phrase it that way or Elayne would have seen her coming... she said "goods entering Andor will be taxed, but not goods entering that SF land".

Do you see it now?

At that time, Zaida knew of Travelling and its immense potential for trade: Renaile's Windfinders were providing gateways to Elayne for bringing trade goods from Tear and Illian.

She got out of Elayne a deal by which she could bring Sea Folk goods into the Westlands tax-free, and insisted it had to be good land, because of course she wants to set up a full trading post there. The Sea Folk never had that before.

Elayne thought herself clever of requiring that Zaida pays taxes for all goods entering Andor from that SF land, thinking Zaida would sell all or most of those goods in Andor, bringing to Andor luxury goods that would make the fortune of Andoran trading reselling them in Murandy, Cairhien, Shienar etc. as if Andor now was a coastal city.

She was undercutting Far Madding and Lugard, primarly (it's definitely those two landlocked nations that will suffer the most badly, especially Far Madding where tons of business deals were made but that produces not much of its own)

It's how it worked for merchants at some point... SF would play taxes for disembarking goods in Tear, merchants - Tairens and others - would pay taxes to bring them through Far Madding and its the place where a lot of exchanges went on, and then through Lugard or Jehannah, and again they'd pay taxed, and would pay taxes to enter Andor etc. The further steps from the coastal cities or sources of the goods, the steeper the prices of those goods.

Previously Andor had not been a disembarking point for SF luxury goods, now Elayne thought her merchants would get them for the same lower prices as merchants in Tear, Illian, Ebou Dar, Bandar Eban. She would undercut Murandy, Far Madding, could now compete with Arad Doman.

In a way, she's right. Andorans will get access for much less for Sea Folk goods, and internal demand will rise.

As for making the Andoran traders rich by selling those goods outside Andor... Elayne got screwed by Zaida. Zaida's intent is for Sea Folk ships to bring goods to that square mile of Andor, then to use gateways to trade with other nations of the Westlands, paying absoltutely no tax to Andor for all this trade, and that deal is in place in perpetuity.... Merchants in markets were previously SF goods were very expensive now would get them for the same prices merchants in coastal cities pay, without having to go buy them in those, nor pay taxes along the way. For the Sea Folk it's all good, they are the only ones beside Aes Sedai, who don't trade, with access to oversea goods, and now they would be the exclusive distributors in all nations and cutting all but the local taxes they would see demand increase.. It also gives direct access to local goods that previously were expensive for the SF to buy, as they didn't buy them at the source, like precious stones from Arafel, they probably bought them all in Bandar Eban etc.

What has Andor gained? Well... Caemlyn too will have better prices for SF goods for its local market.

Elayne's deal with the Kin offsets that. Now Andor too will have a mean for Andoran merchants to use gateways to go buy any trade good it wishes at the source instead of buying from the Sea Folk, and it's in a good situation to make protectionist trade deals within its "pact" nations... from Cairhien, Ghealdan, Mayene, one day Saldaea - none of which have yet made deals with the SF.

It's pretty clear when you consider how much mentions of trade advantages etc. Jordan had Elayne consider through the series.

It's also pretty obvious when you think about it like a businessman would to realize the real motives why the Sea Folk want to learn everything the Aes Sedai know and fast. Their secret they use the OP is out now. They previously relied on the fact it was secret they had this advantage over all other nations. They know if they let it at that, sooner or later the other nations will be jealous and want channelers too. The White Tower draws suspicions, they give OP services for free but very, very rarely. The Sea Folk have a very solidly established reputation of being peaceful, neutral and to trade anything... They intend to learn as much as they can and begin to offer OP services for a price. Before long, they would have the WT influence reduced and the SF's increase massively... It's all fairly obvious.

This is all cornering Egwene into returning the Aes Sedai to a life of active service to all.

She will have little choice... the Aiel already have channellers, the Sea Folk too, and now Elayne went and attached an independant group of channellers to the exclusive service of a nation. It's only a matter of time before nations, especially those who don't like the WT at all, make bargains with the SF for them to find girls and boys in their land, and train them to start their own local organization of channellers...

Elayne's deal with the Kin is there to precipitate this, and - I think - to precipitate a crisis between her and the Hall. To add to this, Brandon had her somewhat lie about her real motives not to take the test (in a large part, Elayne was dithering to gain time). She knows from her favourite-viewing-ever, the one she invokes every time it suits her, that nothing will happen to her babies who will be born in perfect health. That day, she affected to have forgotten that... she's not forgotten the day she returns to the WT the meddling in her affairs will start, though...

Egwene just made a big mistake. A few days before Merrilor (her last chapter in TOM), she said the Hall still tried badly to wrestle with her to gain back part of their authority to deal with the Dragon Reborn, and that she couldn't let them win this. In chapter one of AMOL, Egwene blunders and gives orders to Bryne to mobilize the armies to go to Andor's help. She had given full authority over the armies in exchange for full authority over the rulers... It's fairly obvious: before the night is over, the Hall are going to come and press Egwene to give them some authority back to deal with Rand before the morning, or they won't agree to confirm her orders to send the armies to Andor, as she had no authority to do that. They're not so blunt, they'll probably insinuate it may not be wise to send the armies to Andor and insinuate they have full authority to stop it and countermand her orders.... Having us agree to send the army to help Elayne or keeping your full authority to deal with Rand - what do you choose, Mother?

The rest will depend on her answer, but Egwene seems adamant she must keep her authority over Rand.

Elayne's ambivalent about the seals. Egwene is starting in chapter one to doubt she's really on her side, in fact Elayne is implying Egwene should keep an open mind.

Those two really seem on a path to a conflict, a conflict that echoes the one between Tetsuan and Eldrene. What is happening in Andor has a whole lot of elements reminescent of Manetheren.. the Queen has the Rose Crown and the Sun Crown, she has the reborn Band of the Red Hand, her armies are far away (at the LB instead of the Battle of the Field of Mekkar) when the Shadow strikes home (and as far as we can guess from who's been behind those agents since WH, it's a Moridin plot...) to attract her armies back, she may be about to gain a treacherous ally (an Aridhol) in Roedran, and she seems on a path to a conflict with the Amyrlin who will have to deny her the help of the WT...