8. The basic principles make the system economically

more efficient, and they cut costs

Many of the benefits of the trading system are more difficult to

summarize in numbers, but they are still important. They are the result

of essential principles at the heart of the system, and they make life

simpler for the enterprises directly involved in trade and for the

producers of goods and services.

Trade allows a division of

labour between countries. It

allows resources to be used

more appropriately and

effectively for production. But

the WTO’s trading system

offers more than that. It helps

to increase efficiency and to

cut costs even more because of important principles enshrined in the

system.

Imagine a situation where each country sets different rules and

different customs duty rates for imports coming from different trading

partners. Imagine that a company in one country wants to import raw

materials or components – copper for wiring or printed circuit boards

for electrical goods, for example – for its own production.

It would not be enough for this company to look at the prices offered

by suppliers around the world. The company would also have to make

separate calculations about the different duty rates it would be charged

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on the imports (which would depend on where the imports came from),

and it would have to study each of the regulations that apply to

products from each country. Buying some copper or circuit boards

would become very complicated.

That, in simple terms, is one of the problems of discrimination.

Imagine now that the government announces it will charge the same

duty rates on imports from all countries, and it will use the same

regulations for all products, no matter where they come from, whether

imported or locally produced. Life for the company would be much

simpler. Sourcing components would become more efficient and would

cost less.

Non-discrimination is just one of the key principles of the WTO’s

trading system. Others include:







transparency (clear information about policies, rules and

regulations);

increased certainty about trading conditions (commitments to

lower trade barriers and to increase other countries’ access to

one’s markets are legally binding);

simplification and standardization of customs procedure, removal

of red tape, centralized databases of information, and other

measures designed to simplify trade that come under the heading

“trade facilitation”.

Together, they make trading simpler, cutting companies’ costs and

increasing confidence in the future. That in turn also means more jobs

and better goods and services for consumers.

TASKS

Task 1. Transcribe:

Resource, component, circuit board, transparency, access, procedure,

standard, standardization.

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Task 2. Define the following terms:







enterprise

division of labour

red tape

Task 3. Translate using the text:

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

сокращать расходы

устанавливать правила

сырье

взимать таможенную пошлину

обязательный по закону

6.

упрощение и стандартизация порядка

прохождения

таможенных формальностей

7. содействие торговле

Make up 2 sentences with the new vocabulary.

Task 4. Match the following words with their definitions:

1. commitment

2. supplier

3. transparency

4. regulation

5. facilitation

6. to summarize

7. efficient

8. essential

a) to express concisely

b) the act or process of making easier, assisting

the progress of

c) an obligation, promise

d) a governmental or ministerial order having

the force of law

e) provider

f) the state of being easy to see through,

understand, or recognize

g) basic; fundamental

h) functioning or producing effectively and

with the least waste of effort

Find words in the text which collocate with the words of this exercise.

Task 5. Translate in written the last five paragraphs of Benefit 8.

Task 6. Be ready to answer the following questions:

1. How do countries benefit from trade?

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2. What will happen if all countries set their own rules and customs

duty rates for imports coming from different countries?

3. What principle helps to solve the above stated problem? How

does it work?

4. What are other key principles of the WTO's trading system?

5. Which of them are essential for the economy of our country?

Task 7. Speaking: There are many helpful inventions in the

modern world. But there is something that has not been invented

yet, though everyone urgently needs it. What is it? Think up this

machine and present it to the public.

Grammar Review

MIXED TYPE OF SUBJUNCTIVE

Though the combinations of the Subjunctive II and Conditional Mood

given in the previous sections of Grammar Review are used quite often,

other combinations also occur depending on the need of the speaker to

express different time relations.

Present Subjunctive II + Past Conditional Mood

The condition refers to the present, it is general, often a certain

character feature; the result expressed in the main clause is in the past:

If you were more attentive, you wouldn't have missed that bus.

If I were better educated, they would have given me that job in the

WTO.

If she liked languages, she would have learnt to speak English at

school.

Past Subjunctive II + Present Conditional Mood

The condition is in the past, and its result is felt at present:

If I had graduated from the University, I would get a better salary now.

If the country hadn't acceded to the WTO, it wouldn't be taking part in

those bilateral negotiations now.

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Exercise: Match the two halves of the sentences and translate them:

1.Provided the WTO had not set non-

discrimination as one of the key

principles of its trading system,

2.The organization’s partners would

have received clear information

about the rules and regulations to

follow,

3.If it had not been for specially-

designed measures directed to

a) there would be no hope for

simplification and

standardization of customs

procedure, removal of red

tape and so on.

b) if their government charged

the same duty rates on

incoming products from all

countries.

facilitate international trade,

c) it would increase

our

4.If only the other party had agreed

to prolong their cooperation with

us,

5.We wouldn’t have had to pay such

a high price for exported goods,

confidence in the future.

d) its member-states would not

enjoy equal treatment.

e) if the company conducted a

transparent policy.