rates.”
8. What should the export-dependent developing nations do if they could not export to the U.S. as much as now? (Read Paragraph 49.)
They should encourage more consumption at home and expand trade among emerging countries.
Lesson 4
1. Why is China seen as a threat to the U.S. economy by some people in the United States? (Read Paragraph 2-3.) Their ill-founded and misleading reasons are that the U.S. jobs are transferred to China and the RMB being pegged to the U.S. dollar gives China an unfairly competitive advantage in the market.
2. By whom is the U.S. trade deficit made? And how is it made? (Read Paragraph 4.)
It is made in Washington... (the rest of Para. 4 — from “By courtesy of a runaway Federal budget deficit” to the end)
3. Why does the United States have to run trade deficits with someone? (Read Paragraph 5.) Because of their savings shortfall, the Untied States has to run trade deficits with someone.
4. What would happen to the purchasing power and the economy of the U.S. if the country turned to Mexico, Canada or Europe for imports? (Read Paragraph 5.)
The result would be higher-cost imports that would represent a tax on the American consumer — a tax that would squeeze purchasing power and would undoubtedly constrain U.S. economic growth.
5. How does the U.S. consumers benefit from America?s trade with China? (Read Paragraph 6.)
Take 2003 for example,... (the whole of Para. 6, with “last year” in the second line changed into “that year”)
6. How does America?s trade with China help support the U.S. economic growth in a way? (Read Paragraph 7-8.) China plows back a large position of its export earnings into dollar-based financial assets... (the rest of Para. 7, with “last November” in the 2nd line changed into “the end of 2003”, and the whole of Para. 8)
7. On what grounds should the Chinese currency be considered fairly valued? (Read Paragraph 12.) China should not be accused of having an undervalued currency... (the rest of Para. 12)
Lesson 5
1. Why is it said in the article that the European economy fared even worse than the U.S. in 2002? What were the indications? (Read Paragraph 3.)
The economy of Europe grew only about half as fast as the U.S. Exports accounted for most of the growth in the euro zone economy, with domestic demand stagnant and capital spending continuing to fall.
2. What deterred investment, innovation and economic growth in Germany? And what were the consequences? (Read Paragraph 4.)
The structural constraints to competition in its product and labor markets such as central-wage bargains and restrictive labor practices deterred investment, innovation and growth.
The consequences were that Germany?s labor costs in manufacturing were the highest in the world, and it was losing competitiveness relative to its European neighbors.
3. What policies of the EU and its central bank prevented Germany from making use of the traditional monetary and fiscal policies to settle its economic difficulties? And how could these problems get settled? (Read Paragraph 5 and the note inserted below.)
The focus of the European central bank on a low average inflation target for the EU meant a high real interest rate for Germany. The Maastricht limits on deficit and debt/GDP ratios curtailed Germany?s ability to use fiscal policy to stimulate domestic demand. For them, the traditional monetary, fiscal and exchange-rate policies were no longer available to offset competitiveness or cyclical difficulties.
They had to make painful structural reforms the only way out of its economic malaise.
4. What explains the divergence between the EU and the United States in productivity growth? And how did the IT
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investment rates play a role in making the divergence? (Read Paragraph 6.)
There is mounting evidence that differences in information-technology investment rates played a role. A recent study shows a significant pickup in productivity growth rates in IT-using sectors in both manufacturing and services in the US, and a decline or stagnation in productivity growth rates in comparable sectors in Europe between the first and second half of the 1990s.
The sectors producing IT equipment in both Europe and the U.S., enjoyed a significant improvement in productivity growth over this period. But U.S. productivity growth rates in these sectors were higher, and overall U.S. productivity growth benefited from the fact that IT output accounts for a larger share of total output in the U.S. than in Europe.
5. Why was the productivity growth slower in Europe in the 1990s? And why was the IT investment rate lower then? (Read Paragraph 7.)
Because lower IT investment rates in Europe were partly responsible for its slower productivity growth in the 1990s.
Because both regulatory constraints on employment practices and regulatory barriers on startups discouraged investment in IT and dampened productivity growth in Europe.
6. What is the correlation between competition and greater efficiency — productivity growth? (Read Paragraph 8.) Competition is a key determinant of productivity growth. When competitive intensity is high, companies are forced to seek greater efficiency and higher productivity growth by investing in new technologies.
7. What does the EU have to do if they are to realize the potential of the enlarged integrated market? (Read Paragraph 9.)
They have to hasten labour and market reforms to intensify competition.
Lesson 6
1. How long had Japan?s economy been in recession till 2004? (Read Paragraph 3.) 13 years.
2. What did Japan do as part of their efforts to revive its fortunes? (Read Paragraph 3.)
Japan attempted to revive its fortunes in part by repositioning itself in the global marketplace as the Gucci of consumer electronics.
3. What does the rise of Crystal Valley underscore under the above situation? (Read Paragraph 3.) What does the “pivotal shift” refer to? (Read Paragraph 4.)
With global demand surging for ultra-up-market gadgets, a broad variety of Japanese companies were making new investments on Japanese soil.
4. From which did Sharp profit more, the advanced flat-screen TVs or its regular ones? Where were the two types produced respectively? (Read Paragraph 6.)
Sharp generated more profits from sales of advanced flat-screen TVs produced in Japan than from its regular TV sets.
The advanced ones were made in Japan and the regular ones made in China, Mexico and elsewhere.
5. Did Japan?s economy grow remarkably during its fiscal 2003? (Read Paragraph 12.) And what was the recovery buoyed by? (Read Paragraph 13.)
Yes. The economy had grown in every quarter for the past 12 months, outpacing both the United States and Europe during the three months that ended in December.
The recovery was buoyed by a surge in exports coupled with capital investment at home.
6. Did the industrial output of Japan increase fast from fiscal 2002 to 2003? And how much did Japan?s consumer electronics contribute to the growth spurt? (Read Paragraph 16.)
Yes. Industrial output by Japanese companies was at its highest level in three years.
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The growth spurt is partially linked to consumer electronics: cellular phone production alone jumped 28.8 percent in 2003, contributing 7.2 percent of Japan?s overall increase in industrial production; digital camera production jumped 48.4 percent, adding 4.7 percent to industrial output.
7. How are the Japanese companies trying to lower the cost and price of their high-end products to make them more competitive in the market? (Read Paragraph 21-22.)
Japanese companies are combining top-of-the-time technology with their experience at lowering the price of consumer electronics through continuous improvements in productivity.
8. Why are Japanese companies deciding to stop producing many of their lower-tech products at home? (Read Paragraph 23.)
They think that with extremely high labour costs, Japanese companies should no longer be in the business of making many lower-tech products at home.
9. What?s Japan?s advantage and ambition in the world market for consumer electronics? (Read Paragraph 26.)
In terms of consumer electronics, Japan is most advanced in technology. They are now in the middle of a fight for hegemony.
10. What effect did the investment by Sharp and others have on the local economy of Kameyama? (Read Paragraph 27.)
It had a trickle-down-effect on the local economy. With the investments, the economy and the living conditions of the locality were much improved.
Lesson 7
1. What effect could the Doha Round have on the world economy? (Read Paragraph 1.)
The Doha Round could determine far into the future the rules under which further globalization takes place and the distribution of benefits among and within nations.
2. What question did the U.S. push as the major item on the agenda for the Doha Round? Why did the U.S. drive for that? (Read Paragraph 5.)
The United States pushed market access in agriculture and service as the central trust of the Doha Round, both of which were areas of particular U.S. strength. Doing so was in America?s interest.
3. Were the European countries like France and Japan happy to discuss the liberalization of agricultural trade for a settlement at the Doha Round? Why? (Read Paragraph 6-7.)
No, they were strongly opposed to such a discussion since both heavily subsidized their inefficient farm sectors — protecting their farmers from being beaten by foreign competitors in the market.
4. The agenda proposed by the EU on trade-related environment issues was strongly opposed by agricultural exporters and many developing countries. Why? (Read Paragraph 8.) They worried that much of it was disguised protectionism.
5. Who wanted to have the antidumping issues included in the agenda of the Doha Round, the U.S. or Japan and South Korea? Who strongly opposed it? Why? (Read Paragraph 9.) Japan and South Korea.
The United States strongly opposed it, especially against the backdrop of sharp U.S. job losses in steel and the manufacturing slowdown. Because America tried to have their industries avoid further competition from Japan and South Korea at home.
6. In what areas did the developing countries expect to benefit from the Doha Round? (Read Paragraph 11-12.) Could the wealthiest nations help them genuinely and sincerely in this regard? (Read Paragraph 13.)
Many developing countries expected to benefit from freer agricultural export markets after the Doha Round, where not only tariffs and quotas but also production and export subsidies were reduced. They also wanted expanded access into industrial sectors where trade barriers remained high — including apparel.
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No.
7. Why were many smaller poor nations concerned about the WTO?s agenda-setting system? (Read Paragraph 15.) Many of the smaller poor nations had legitimate concern about how well the WTO represented their interests. Although in principle a consensus organization, in practice the WTO had lent itself to agenda-setting by a small ground of wealthy nations through a nontransparent, ad hoc process.
Lesson 8
1. What is the importance of textiles in China?s export trade? And what is the importance of garments in China?s textile export? (Read Paragraph 2.)
Textiles account for 40 percent of Chinese exports, and 70 percent of Chinese textile exports are garments.
2. When did China become the world champion in garment production? How much did China supply to the world textile market during the 1994-1999 period? (Read Paragraph 3-4.)
China emerged in 1994 as the world champion in garment production, and supplied one-sixth of the world trade in textiles from 1994-1999.
3. What prevented China?s textile export from further growth then? (Read Paragraph 6.) The system of import quota in the textile trade.
4. Are there any barriers to further expansion of China?s textile exports in the post-quota era? What is the first one listed in the article? (Read Paragraph 11-13.)
Yes. Quotas to be eliminated in 2005 would be replaced by extra tariffs, place of origin controls and other non-tariff barriers.
China pledged in its WTO accession protocols to cut tariffs on textile imports from 12.1 percent to 9 percent by 2004; the U.S. would still be charging 11.5 percent.
5. What is the second barrier listed? (Read Paragraph 14-15.)
Even more of a threat to China?s textile industry is domestic competition for foreign orders. 6. What is the last barrier listed in the article? (Read Paragraph 23 & 27-31.)
China?s textile companies also face so-called “green barriers” — European Union and U.S. requirements for environmental friendly products.
Lesson 9
1. What are the reasons for the global tension in oil supply, according to the text? (Read Paragraph 5.) What is the world economy?s deficiency in its energy support? (Read Paragraph 4.)
In the United States and Europe, new demand for electricity is outpacing the new supply of power and natural gas. And the emerging economies? demand for oil is rising fast. The world economy depends too much on a single fuel — oil.
2. What does “energy security” mean to a nation and to the world? (Read Paragraph 4.)
At its most basic level, energy security is the ability to keep the global machine humming — that is, to produce enough fuels and electricity at affordable prices that every nation can keep its economy running, its people fed and its borders defended.
3. Where are the hot spots for competition between or among the leading oil importers? (Read Paragraph 1-3 and 9-10.)
Where does most of the world?s remaining oil lie? (Read Paragraph 8.)
The hot spots are Siberia (Russia), Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and other Middle-East countries.
In the Middle East (including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar).
（二）经贸文章专业词语和常用词语认知练习参考答案 Lesson 1
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