大学外贸英语基本知识学习点

大学外贸英语考试大纲

Chapter 1 The Global Economic Crisis

Many people believe the current global slowdown initiate in 2008, to a large extent, was of American making.

Plunge in housing industry, reduced or delayed foreign direct investment, credit crunch in many a country, shrinkage of consumer spending, declining stock markets, sharp rises in unemployment rate, a much smaller number of international tourists, slowing down in countries’GDP growth are all illustrations of global economic crisis.

GDP = Gross Domestic Product

MNE = Multinational Enterprise

Six tenets of international trade are taking advantage of trade agreements, protecting your brand at all costs, maintaining high ethical standards, staying secure in an insecure world, expecting the unexpected and remembering all global business is personal.

G20 includes Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Republic of Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America.

?recession ?housing start ?budget

deficit ?capital flows ?high yield ?macroecono mic policy ?liquidity ?trade

protection

?tax heavens

?private

sector

?public sector

?public

spending

?balance

sheet

?securities

Chapter 2 American Economy

The agricultural sector of American economy is also important, with highly mechanized farming methods and efficient pest-control techniques.

Service industry in the U.S. has become more and more important, making up more than 60% of American economic activities.

?retail sales ?corporate fleets

?mini-depress ion

?interbank rates

?money

supply

?credit supply

?junk bond

?equity =

shares/

securities

?estate agent

?mortgage

brokers

?job market

?credit rating

?labor cost

Chapter 3 China’s Economy

During the early years after the People’s Republic of China was set up, the country followed the former Soviet Union’s model of economic planning and command.

Mr. Edwards reckons that a decline in electricity output may mean that GDP is falling, no matter what the official figures say.

Energy-guzzling heavy industries, such as steel and cement, bore the brunt of China’s downturn late in year 2008. Those who repeat the official mantra that China needs to grow by at least 8% a year to avoid social unrest has no sound economic basis.

According to Chapter 3, China’s 4 trillion yuan ($ 585 billion) package of infrastructure spending, subsidies and tax cuts for businesses has been trashed by many commentators as another “Chinese fake”.

Chris Wood, at CLSA, a brokerage, says the effectiveness of the stimulus hinges on the extent to which China is now a capitalist economy.

Public investment will inevitably include some wasteful spending, and politically directed lending could add to excess capacity in some sectors and create new bad loans for banks. SOE State Owned Enterprise

HSBC = Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Company/Corporation OECD = Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

CPI = consumer price index

?slump=depr ession

?rebate = discount

?command economy

?planned economy

?capitalism

?Socialism

?capitalist

economy

?bad loan

?heavy

industry

?economic

stimulus

plan

?industrial

production

?trade surplus

?letter of

credit

?infrastructur

e

?competitiven

ess

?emerging

economies

Chapter 4 Benefits of International Trade

International trade is exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories.

The benefits of international trade include helping to raise the living standards of the people, to upgrade a country’s modernization, to solve a country’s shortage of capital, to solve unemployment problems, to promote mutual

understanding and friendship between trading partners, to boost a country’s competitiveness in the world market and to accelerate its overall economic growth.

GNP = Gross National Product

ASEAN = Association of Southeast Asian Nations

EU = European Union

?deposit ?foreign exchange ?finance ?modernizati on ?industrializat

ion

?joint venture

?after-sales

service

?productive

factors

?productivity

?self-sufficien

cy

Chapter 5 Modern Trade Theories (1)

Mercantilism, representing the first stage in the development of modern trade theory, arose during the period 1500-1800 in Europe with the decline of feudalism and the rise of capitalism.

Mercantilist holds that the wealth of a nation lies in gold and silver, international trade is a zero-sum game and the government’s function is to encourage export while limit import.

Adam Smith’s masterpiece is An Inquiry into the Nature and

Causes of the Wealth of Nations, which was published in 1776. Adam Smith first described the principle of absolute advantage in the context of international trade, using labor as the only input.

Adam Smith also stated that the wealth of nations depends upon the goods and services available to their citizens, rather than their gold reserves.

Adam Smith was for international free trade and international division of labor.

David Ricardo developed the trade principle of comparative advantage.

PPF = Production Possibility Frontier

absolute advantage comparative advantage factor endowment product

life-cycle mercantilism capitalism mercantilist

trade

balance

international

division of

labor

neo-mercant

ilist

convertible

currency

opportunity

cost

factor costs

volume

advantage

Chapter 6 Modern Trade Theories (2)

H-O theory was developed from comparative advantage theory.

H-O theorists hold that differences in relative factor endowments and factor prices constitute the most important explanation of the basis for international trade.

With trade the relative differences in resources prices between nations tend to be eliminated or to be equalized as a result of continuous specialization in the production of the commodity of a nation’s comparative advantage.

H-O theory fails to turn enough attention to the increasing importance of the roles played by science and technology in the international division of labor and international trade.

H-O theory fails to touch on the maximization of profit-seeking as one of the most fundamental reasons for capitalist countries to trade with other countries.

Leontief is an economist who won the Nobel Prize in international economics in 1973.

One of the influential theories attempting to explain Leontief paradox is the product life-cycle theory.

The product life-cycle theory is primarily concerned with the role of technological innovation as key determinant of trade patterns in manufactured products.

The stages that many manufactured goods go through include introduction stage, growth stage, maturity stage, decline stage and losing to foreign competitors stage. Boeing and McDonnel Douglas are examples of first-mover advantage.

According to gravity model of trade, trade between two countries increases with their economic size, but decreases with the distance between them.

Andrew Rose’s innovation was to add membership of a currency union as a possible influence on trade.

●home market ●production

process

●economies of

scale ●currency union

●business

executives

●monopoly

●export

sourcing

●production

capability

Chapter 7 Arguments on Government Intervention in International Trade

The category of arguments on government intervention in international trade cover a range of issues including: protecting jobs and industries, national security, retaliation, protecting consumers, furthering foreign policy objectives and protecting human rights.

CAP = Common Agricultural Policy

VERs = Voluntary Export Restraints

MFN = Most Favored Nation

GM food= genetically modified food

There are two types of trade regimes in countries around the world, which are free trade and managed trade or fair trade. Government intervention arises in various forms, mainly are tariff, non-tariff trade barrier, quota and investment barriers. Developed countries including the United States also have their own human rights problems.

The infant industry argument has been recognized as a legitimate reason for protectionism by the WTO.

Hong Kong government put up most of the cash –$1.74 billion –to build Hong Kong Disneyland, which is an example of investment incentives.

Three criteria have been especially popular among supporters of strategic trade policies. They are(1) industries are desirable if they have high value added per worker; (2) Industries are desirable if they pay high wages; and (3) Industries are desirable if they make use of high technology.

?anti-dumpin g ?import

quotas

?non-tariff

trade

barriers

?Big Three

General

Motors, Ford, and Chrysler ?subsidies ?foot-mouth ?mad cow

disease

?trade

sanction

?infant

industry

?consortium

?chip

Chapter 8 International Trade Policies

A country’s international trade policies include import and export commodity policies which are policies formulated on the basis of a country’s general foreign trade policies, economic structure and domestic market conditions.

The most important goals or objectives of international trade policies of various countries are to protect a country’s domestic markets, to protect a country’s domestic industries, to expand a country’s export markets, to promote the improvement of a country’s industrial structure, to accumulate capital or funds, and to maintain a country’s economic and political relations with other nations. Government following free trade policy do not attempt to set up barriers whatsoever to import and export trade. Protective tariffs, voluntary exports restraints, import quotas, import licensing system are all important forms of protective trade policies.

Tariffs are the oldest and simplest instrument of trade policies.

Export tariffs are prohibited by the U.S. constitution.

A specific tariff is expressed in terms of a fixed amount of money per physical unit of the imported product.

An ad valorem tariff, much like a sales tax, is a fixed percentage of the value of the imported good as it enters the country.

Subsidies in developed countries take many forms including cash grants, low-interest loans, tax breaks, and government equity participation in domestic firms.

A voluntary export restraint is a variant on import quota.

As with tariffs and subsidies, both import quotas and VERs benefit domestic producers by limiting import competition. Both developing nations and developed nations have used local content requirements.

As with all trade policies, local content regulators tend to benefit producers not consumers.

In the context of international trade, dumping is variously defined as selling goods in a foreign market at below their cost of production or as selling goods in a foreign market at below their “fair”market value.

The Japanese are masters of administrative policies.

GATT = General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

?specific tariff ?ad valorem tariff

?protective tariff ?punitive tariff ?cash grants ?tax break ?import substitution ?profit margin ?customs

inspector

?industrial

structure

?preferential

treatment

?trade

sanction

?patent law

?copyright

piracy

?copyright

law

?the

third-world

nation

?think tank

?Job One

Chapter 9 Regional Economic Integration

Regional economic integration form includes preferential trade arrangement, a free trade area, a customs union, a common market, an economic union and a political union. The EU has 27 member states now.

The EU was created in 1993 from the European Community, which itself grew from the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Atomic Energy Community, and the European Economic Community.

Council of the European Union, European Commission, European Parliament and European Court of Justice are the four institutions that govern the EU.

NAFTA helps to boost trade and reduce tariffs among Mexico,

Canada and U.S..

Some people have claimed that NAFTA has resulted in a mass exodus of jobs from the U.S. and Canada into Mexico as employers sought to profit from Mexico’s lower wages and less strict environmental and labor laws.

NAFTA = North American Free Trade Agreement/Area APEC = Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation

CEPA = Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement

Hong Kong (SAR) = Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ECFA = Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement

fiscal policy employment policy intermediate product

trade

volume

industrial

policy

Citigroup

Commerce

Ministry

Chapter 10 Exchange Rate and International Trade

If yuan rises against the dollar, China’s exports to the U.S. will become more costly, and this will slow down or even stop the export growth rate.

Basically there are two types of exchange-rate system: the fixed exchange-rate system and the floating exchange-rate system.

Under fixed exchange-rate system, the rate between one

currency and another is fixed and maintained by the government.

By floating or flexible exchange rates, we mean currency prices are determined by the market forces.

BOP = Balance of Payments

?exchange rate ?foreign currency ?fixed exchange-ra te ?floating exchange-ra

te

?foreign

exchange

market

?central

banks

?financial

market

?currency

regime

?budget

deficit

?property

market

?rebate

?mutual fund

?insurance

company

Chapter 11 The Balance of Payments

An international transaction refers to the exchange of goods, services, and assets between one country and the rest of the world.

The BOP of a country is often mainly composed of the current account and capital account.

A credit transaction is one that results in a receipt of a payment from foreigners.

A debit transaction is one that leads to a payment to foreigners.

Double-entry bookkeeping means each international transaction is recorded twice in the BOP account, once as a credit and one as a debit of an equal amount.

?accounting principle ?economic policy ?monetary

policy

?asset

?current

transfers

?visible trade

?official

reserve

account

?currency

band

Chapter 12 International Investment and Multinational Enterprises

The main reasons for MNCs to operate abroad are to secure supplies of raw materials, to utilize cheap labor sources, to service local markets and to bypass protectionist barriers. International investment in terms of its form, is basically of two types: foreign indirect investment and foreign direct investment.

Portfolio investors normally do not aim to obtain a managerial control of a corporation.

Portfolio investments are therefore financial assets. Investments made by MNCs abroad in building factories,

producing capital goods, in buying land and inventories are all examples of foreign direct investments.

Direct investments are now the principal channel of international private capital flows.

The most controversial of the alleged harmful effects of MNCs on the home nation is the loss of domestic jobs resulting from FDI.

The second problem is that MNCs by making FDI reduce the home country’s tax revenue.

Finally, due to the MNCs’active participation in the international capital markets, they can make it difficult for the home nation to control over the national economy.

?multinationa l corporations ?stock ownership ?host country ?dividend

?factor movement ?debt

obligation

?subsidiary

?distribution

network

?capital

goods

?inventory

?oligopolistic

market

?trade

investment

?human

resources

?the World

Bank

Chapter 13 GATT

GATT is the predecessor of the WTO.

The GATT was not a formal international trade body but an international treaty or a multilateral agreement.

In one word, the GATT was signed to liberalize world trade. The GATT rests on the following eight principles: non-discrimination, protection by tariff and tariff concession, general elimination of quantitative restriction, fair trade based on prohibition of dumping and restriction of export subsidies, exemption and emergency action principle, consultation and mediation principle, special preferential treatment to developing countries and transparency principle. The first three are essential.

In a nutshell, the GATT had made the four contributions to the development of world trade, which are tariff reduction, preferential treatment to developing countries, general elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in some sectors and setting-up of the WTO in 1994.

Although the completion of the Uruguay Round was of itself a great achievement, only some of its aims were met and many trade problems remain.

The first and most important problem of Uruguay Round is that many sectors were not included in the agreement. Without this GATT deal, the world might have slipped into

increasingly dangerous trade wars.

UR = Uruguay Round

WTO = World Trade Organization

FOB = Free on Board离岸价格

CIF = Cost Insurance and Freight 到岸价格

most-favore d-nation provision preferential tariff

export license countervailin g duty primary product

exemption

and

emergency

action

consultation

and

mediation

research cost

security firm

centrally

planned

economy

market

economy

Doha Round

Non-discrimi

nation

Contracting

parties

Chapter 14-16 WTO

The WTO as formally set up on January 1, 1995, which has wider and more permanent power than the GATT.

The WTO is a formal international trade institution enjoying the full status of a legal person.

The GATT only addressed issues concerning trade in goods while the WTO’s governance is extended to include the

service trade.

The WTO has a new “dispute settlement understanding”, designed to reach judgement in much shorter time than GATT. The cardinal principles of WTO inherited from the GATT which serve as the foundation of a multilateral trading system are as follows: most-favored-nation treatment principle, national treatment principle, transparency principle, free trade principle and fair competition principle.

Ministerial Conference is the highest decision-making body, which is composed of trade ministers of all the WTO members.

Under the MC there is the General Council which is supposed to perform the responsibilities of the WTO when the MC is not in session.

DSU = dispute settlement understanding

GSP = generalized system of preference

MC = Ministerial Conference

GC = General Council

NTBs = non-tariff barriers

TAC = textiles and clothing

GATS = General Agreement on Trade in Service

TRIPS = Agreement On Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Right

DSB = Dispute Settlement Body GMO = Genetically Modified Organism

?subject matter ?certificate of origin ?safeguard measure ?export financing ?budgetary estimate ?final accounting of revenue and

expenditure

?national

treatment

?dispute

settlement

body

?customs

classification

?designated

organ

?material

damage

?forced labor

?grace period

?supernationa

l treatment

?first-to-inven

t rule

?healthcare

?labeling

system

?investment

regulations

?poverty

alleviation

?terror attack

?vested

interests