ВАРИАНТ 3
I. Прочитайте текст, письменно переведите на родной язык 2 и 3 абзацы текста. Выпишите и переведите на родной язык предложения с независимым причастным оборотом ( второй, третий и шестой абзацы).
Foreign Trade
What is now called international trade has existed for thousands of years long before there were nations with specific boundaries. Foreign trade means the exchange of goods and services between nations, but speaking in strictly economic terms, international trade today is not between nations. It is between producers and consumers or between producers in different parts of the globe. Nations do not trade, only economic units such as agricultural, industrial, and service enterprises can participate in trade.
Goods can be defined as finished products, as intermediate goods used in producing other goods, or as agricultural products and foodsruffs. International trade enables a nation to specialize in those goods it can produce most cheaply and efficiently and it is one of the greatest advantages of trade. On the other hand, trade also enables a country to consume more than it can produce if it depends only on its own resources. Finally, trade expands the potential market for the goods of a particular economy. Trade has always been the major force behind the economic relations among nations.
Different aspects of international trade and its role in the domestic economy are known to have been developed by many famous economists. International trade began to assume its present form with the establishment of nation-states in the 17th and 18th centuries, new theories of economics, in particular of international trade, having appeared during this period.
In 1776 the Scottish economist Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations, proposed that specialization in production leads to increased output and in order to meet a constantly growing demand for goods it is necessary that a country’s scarce resources be allocated efficiently. According to Smith’s theory, it is essential that a country trading internationally should specialize in those goods in which it has an absolute advantage – that is, the ones it can produce more cheaply and efficiently than its trading partners can. Exporting a portion of those goods, the country can in turn import those that its trading partners produce more cheaply. To prove his theory Adam Smith used the example of Portuguese wine in contrast to English woolens.
Half a century later, having been modified by the English economist David Ricardo, the theory of international trade is still accepted by most modern economists. In line with the principle of comparative advantage, it is important that a country should gain from trading certain goods even though its trading partners can produce those goods more cheaply. The comparative advantage is supposed to be realized if each trading partner has a product that will bring a better price in another country than it will at home. If each country specializes in producing the goods in which it has a comparative advantage, more goods are produced, and the wealth of both the buying and the selling nations increases.
Trade based on comparative advantage still exists: France and Italy are known for their wines, and Switzerland maintains a reputation for fine watches. Alongside this kind of trade, an exchange based on a competitive advantage began late in the 19th century. Several countries in Europe and North America having reached a fairly advanced stage of industrialization, competitive advantage began to play a more important role in trade. With relatively similar economies countries could start competing for customers in each other’s home markets. Whereas comparative advantage is based on location, competitive advantage must be earned by product quality and customer acceptance. For example, German manufacturers sell cars in the United States, and American automakers sell cars in Germany, both countries as well as Japanese automakers competing for customers throughout Europe and in Latin America.
Thus, international trade leads to more efficient and increased world production, allows countries to consume a larger and more diverse amount of goods, expands the number of potential markets in which a country can sell its goods. The increased international demand for goods results in greater production and more extensive use of raw materials and labour, which means the growth of domestic employment. Competition from international trade can also force domestic firms to become more efficient through modernization and innovation.
It is obvious that within each economy the importance of foreign trade varies. Some nations export only to expand their domestic market or to aid economically depressed sector within the domestic economy. Other nations depend on trade for a large part of their national income and it is often important for them to develop import of manufactures goods in order to supply the ones for domestic consumption. In recent years foreign trade has also been considered as a means to promote growth within a nation’s economy. Developing countries and international organizations have increasingly emphasized such trade,
II. Ответьте письменно на вопросы к тексту.
1. What does foreign trade mean in economic terms?
2. What are the three main advantages of trade?
3. How did Adam Smith explain the rope of foreign trade?
4. What is the main principle of Ricardo’s theory of international trade?
5. What examples of comparative and competitive advantages of trade can you think of?
6. Why did trade based on competitive advantage appear as late as in the 19th century?
7. What is the role of international trade nowadays?
8. Are developing or developed nations more interested in foreign trade?
III. Составьте предложения из двух подходящих по смыслу частей.
1. The principle of absolute advantage assumes ….. .
2. Having been involved ….. .
3. The concept of competitive advantage proves ….. .
4. Developed countries ….. .
5. Both the buying and the selling nations ….. .
6. The theory of comparative advantage emphasizes ….. .
7. It is necessary ….. .
8. Being limited by scarce resources ….. .
9. In accordance with economic theory ….. .
10. Promoting foreign trade ….. .
___________________________
a) in international division of labour, LDCs became the centres of cheap foreign labour.
b) that the country can gain from trading high quality products and should compete for customers in the world market.
c) producers from different countries participate in foreign trade as economic units.
d) that a country should specialize in producing those goods which it can produce more cheaply than its trading partners.
e) the governments want to expand the potential market for the goods of their countries.
f) are known to have become main world trade centres, half of all foreign trade taking place between these countries.
g) the nation has to develop wide trade relations to supply the necessary goods for domestic consumption.
h) that developing countries export more finished goods instead of raw materials.
i) that a country should specialize in producing certain goods although its trading partners produce those goods more cheaply.
j) gain from trade relations, as countries can consume larger and more diverse amounts of goods.
IV. Переведите на родной язык следующие предложения.
1. The United States trade policy has passed through an era of self-sufficiency in which high tariffs, import quotas and other means were used to protect domestic industries and to maintain the country’s economic security.
2. The acceptance of the principle of international cooperation means that the first and the most important thing any nation can do is to achieve and maintain a high level of domestic prosperity.
3. Direct or indirect subsidies are government payments to aid domestic industry if it is subjected to unfavourable competitive conditions in foreign trade.
4. In the “pure” economical theory of international trade economists discuss questions such as the determination of comparative advantage by examining the real resources (physical qualities of land, labour and capital) used to make diverse goods in various countries.
5. The international monetary system is supposed to provide a medium of exchange for foreign transactions in the world economy, the operation of the system of international payments being of special interest to economists.
6. Exports of manufactured goods produced in LDCs to industrial countries have led to complaints in developed countries that jobs are being threatened by competition from cheap foreign labour.
7. According to economic theory there always exists an exchange rate that will allow the country to produce at least one good more cheaply than other countries when all goods are valued in a common currency.
8. Through international exchange countries supply the world economy with the commodities that they produce relatively cheaply and demand from the world economy the goods that are made relatively cheaply elsewhere.
9. It has been proved that comparative advantage leads to specialization of different countries in different brands within the same industry, a country importing or exporting a good but not both.
10. Commercial policy is the government policy that influences foreign trade through taxes or subsidies or through direct restrictions on imports and exports.
V. Переведите предложения на английский язык.
1. Международная торговля, включающая обмен товарами и услугами между странами, привела к большей взаимозависимости между экономиками разных стран.
2. Важно, чтобы международная торговля позволяла стране специализироваться на тех товарах, которые она может производить дешевле и эффективнее, чем конкуренты.
3. Многие экономисты считают, что торговля, основанная на принципе относительного преимущества, дает возможность стране получать больше товаров, чем она может произвести, используя только свои ресурсы.
4. Принципы развития международной торговли, рассмотренные такими известными экономистами, как Адам Смит и Давид Рикардо, как полагают, являются основой современных экономических теорий.
5. Конкуренция как на мировом рынке, так и внутри страны заставляет производителей улучшать качество товаров, проводить модернизацию и вносить новшества, чтобы привлечь больше потребителей.
6. Развитие международной торговли позволяет стране расширить рынок товаров, более рационально использовать сырье и трудовые ресурсы, а также помочь ослабленным секторам местной экономики.
VI. Выберите подходящее по смыслу слово из предлагаемых в скобках вариантов.
1. Special agreements (allowed/allocated) the former Soviet block countries’ exports of meat, fruit, dairy goods and vegetables to rise by 10 percent a year for five years.
2. The European Community due to importing and exporting (limited/diverse) resources is considered to be a more integrated market, in which distance, information barriers and tariffs are (actually/relatively) unimportant.
3. The society will (gain/economize) be restricting imports until the benefit of the last import equals its cost to society as a whole.
4. Special care should be taken by the government to protect economic interests of the (depressed/competitive) groups of the population and reduce absolute poverty.
5. Nowadays environmental management should be (adjusted/accepted) as (an unimportant/a major) factor for any country’s national development and it should be (emphasized/expanded) by scientific, technical and administrative support.
6. The (wholesaler/retailer) performs the last stage of the distribution process, for he puts the goods in the hands of the actual consumer.
7. The law of (comparative/competitive) advantage states that countries specialize in producing and exporting the goods that they produce at a (relative/relatively) lower cost than other countries.
8. Due to achievement of modern sciences various (advantages/innovations) applied in production cycles have greatly decreased the share of labour-consuming operations.
Centralized control of the production factors results from the (acceptance/exception) of an ideology that (emphasizes/gives rise to) the importance of the group of people rather than the individual.