16) Разделитесь на группы по 3 – 4 человека и попробуйте построить собственный бизнес-план, опираясь на текст.

Foreign Trade

International trade can be defined as the exchange of goods and services between different countries. Depending on what a country produces or needs, it can either export (send goods to another country) or import (bring in goods from another country). Goods brought from abroad or sold abroad are called visible imports or exports. Services, such as insurance, freight, tourism, technical expertise are called invisible imports or exports.

The total amount of money a country makes including money from visible and invisible exports, for a certain period of time, usually for a year, is Gross National Product, or GNP. If a country sells more goods than it buys, it will have a surplus. If a country buys more than it sells, it will have a deficit.

The main difference between domestic trade and international trade is the use of foreign currencies to pay for the goods and services crossing international borders. Whenever a country imports or exports goods and services, there is a resulting flow of funds: money returns to the exporting nation and money flows out of the importing nation. Trade and investment is a two-way street, and with a minimum of trade barriers, international trade and investment usually make everyone better off. International trade is controlled by governments in different ways. The most common measures taken are tariffs and quotes. A tariff is a tax imposed on imported goods, where as a quota is the maximum quantity of a product that may be admitted in a country during a certain period of time. These measures are said to be protectionists in that they raise the price of imported goods so that domestically produced goods will gain a price advantage.

Some trade barriers will always exist as long as any two countries have different sets of laws. However, when a country decides to protect its economy by erecting artificial trade barriers, the result is often damaging to everyone, including those people whose barriers were meant to protect. The purpose of international organizations such as GATT (General Agreement on Traffics and Trade) or EFTA (European Free Trade Association) is to regulate tariffs and to reduce trade restrictions between member countries. The European Community (EC) was founded in 1957 in order to create a common market free of all physical, technical and fiscal barriers. EC members are: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the UK and others.

Лексика к тексту:

foreign trade – внешняя торговля

domestic trade – внутренняя торговля

visible – видимый

invisible – невидимый

total – общий, целый

amount – сумма

freight – фрахт

surplus – излишек, активное сальдо

deficit – дефицит

tariff (tax) – налог

quota – квота

border – граница

measure – мера

protectionist – протекционистский

artificial – искусственный

to earn – зарабатывать

earnings – доходы, поступления

expenditure – расходы

commodity – товар

Commodity Exchange – товарная биржа

Stock Exchange – фондовая биржа