Lesson 1. Text: International Trade

Text: International Trade

Grammar: The Infinitive

Terms to remember:

International Trade

International trade is the exchange of goods and services between countries. It enables countries to obtain some goods and services more cheaply than they could produce them for themselves or to consume goods and services which would otherwise be unobtainable from domestic supply sources.

Through international trade countries can improve their living standards. International trade keeps domestic prices down by creating competition at home and provides large markets abroad.

Governments can control international trade. The most common protectionist measures are tariffs (a taxon imported goods), quotas (the maximum quantity of a product allowed into a country during a certain period of time), exchange controls. They raise the price of imported goods to protect national producers.

The international trade that takes place without barriers such as tariffs, quotas and exchange controls is called free trade.

Free trade area is a form of trade integration between a number of countries, in which members eliminate all trade barriers among themselves on goods and services, but each continues to operate its own barriers against trade with the rest of the world.

Exercises in Word Study

Ex.1. Form nouns from the following verbs:

produce, consume, improve, control, protect, integrate, eliminate, operate, supply.

Ex.2. Give the English for:

міжнародна торгівля; покращувати життєвий рівень; контролювати міжнародну торгівлю; протекціоністські заходи; валютне регулювання; підвищувати ціни на імпортні товари; захищати національного виробника; вільна торгівля; усувати всі торгові бар’єри.

Ex.3. Match words from list A with words from list B that have a similar meaning:

Ex.4. Find suitable opposites to the following words and phrases:

domestic; cheaply; obtainable; to raise the price; international trade.