2. Look through the text again and pick out the key words and expressions

III. Post-Reading Tasks

1. Discussion.

1. Explain the following statement from the article: NAFTA was "an agreement for the rich and powerful in the United States, Mexico and Canada, an agreement effectively excluding ordinary people in all three societies."

2. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of NAFTA for people living in Latin America.

3. If the US has NAFTA for open trade, why can't we have NAFTA for open labor immigration?

4. Is it time to reconsider NAFTA? Should it be renegotiated? Is it really working for the host countries? Should it be stopped?

2. Simulations

Role-play: Divide into 2 groups: 1) representatives of the USA and Canada; 2) representatives of Latin American countries. Hold a summit of NAFTA members and discuss the most acute problems of the region and possible ways to make NAFTA more efficient.

3. Make a summary of the text

Unit 3

WTO

I. Pre-Reading Task

1. When and where was the WTO created?

2. WTO: principal objectives and functions, accession procedure.

3. What are the main principles advanced by GATT?

4. Benefits proclaimed by the WTO for consumers and national economies.

II. Reading Task

1. Read the text to find out the answers to the following questions

1. “If goods do not pass frontiers, armies will”. Comment upon this quotation in the context of the trade history.

2. What is one of the main merits of the GATT and the WTO? The functions of these organizations as peacekeeping tools.

3. Multilateral trading system vs. old-fashioned commercial confrontation.

4. What are the two schemes which the WTO’s criticism is based on?

5. What is a scheme that justifies the WTO’s existence?

6. According to the article, what is the main function of the WTO? What are the subfunctions?

7. Comment on the comparison with “a pact with devil”, “the Faustian bargain”.

8. What advantage does the multilateralism have in comparison with unilateralism, bilateralism, regionalism etc.?

Text 1. World Trade Vs. World War

By Peter d. Sutherland

Many people around the world are up in arms about the WTO. They view it as a tool to promote globalization – and to impose economic hardship on many nations. In a historic context, however, the WTO is a peacekeeping tool.

When Cordell Hull - later to become U.S. Secretary of State – told Woodrow Wilson "If goods do not pass frontiers, armies will", he had thousands of years of history on his side.

The end of war?

Mr.Hull went on, in the 1930s, to design the U.S. trade laws that helped recovery from the Great Depression – and ultimately became the foundation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).

The GATT and, now, the WTO have largely eliminated commercial ambition as a cause of war. Governments have neither the need nor the opportunity to raise armies and navies solely to secure access to land, raw materials and labor.

Of course, Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaties existed for hundreds of years. But most were born precisely from military adventurism – and empire-building for commercial gain and influence. For centuries, armed might determined or defended trade advantage.