Article 5

The trainees shall observe ... laws and customs, as well as all rules and regulations in force at the enterprises of training and in hotels. They shall

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^lso observe the instructions on the industrial safety measures in the course of training.

Article 6

, The Supplier shall provide the trainees with three meals a day as well as With transport for their trips from their residence to the place of training and lack. Besides, the trainees shall be provided with overalls and extra meals ({special meals) as per ... norms in force.

1 During the technical and industrial training the Supplier shall provide Ihe trainees with hotel accommodation or living accommodation, one room for two trainees.

Article 7

The Customer shall provide the trainees for the whole period of training in... with pocket money and warm (winter) clothes as well as shall pay di­rectly the trainees' travelling expenses from ... to ... and back and cover luggage transportation expenses.

The Customer shall pay the expenses on insurance of the trainees against accidents and illness for the duration of their stay in ... .

Article 8

The Customer may recall either at his own discretion or at the Supplier's request their trainees from ... and replace them by others, and the parties shall inform each other both of a withdrawal and replacement in writing. The expenses to be incurred in connection with the withdrawal of a trainee for the reason beyond the Supplier's control shall be borne by the Customer.

Article 9

Upon completion of training the Supplier shall issue a certificate to each trainee indicating the speciality in which this trainee can be engaged at a steel plant. The specialists and workers of the Customer, who have under­gone technical and industrial training at the RF ... enterprises shall be em­ployed at the ... Steel plant.

Article 10

The Customer shall reimburse the Supplier for the following expenses connected with the upkeep of the trainees at the ... enterprises:

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a) expenses connected with providing the Customer's trainees with liv­ ing accommodation, three meals, transport for the trips from their residence to the place of their training and back at the rate of... roubles per month for each engineer or technician (foreman) and ... roubles per month for each worker.

For an incomplete calendar month of training the reimbursement of the expenses incurred shall be effected at the rate of 1 /30 (one thirtieth) of the above monthly rates per day.

b) expenses incurred in connection with trips of the trainees within ... territory and provision of overalls and extra meals (special meals) to the trainees in the instances stipulated by the norms in force in ... .

The reimbursement of such expenses shall be effected against the actual expenditures incurred.

Article 11

Payments to reimburse expenses on the upkeep of the Customer's train­ees at the RF ... enterprises as well as their trips within the territory of... during their training shall be effected by the Customer in roubles out of the

credit granted in accordance with the Agreement between ... and on

Economic and Technical Cooperation dated ... against invoices, presented by the Supplier to the Customer through the State Bank of... once in three months for the amount of expenditures incurred by the Supplier during past three months.

Article 12

from its signing date ....

Supplier ...

overall n спецодежда at his discretion по своему выбору (усмотрению)

The Present Contract shall be valid Legal Addresses of the Parties:

Customer ...

manual n справочник, руководство out-patient treatment амбулаторное лечение

UNIT 5

DOING BUSINESS THROUGH AGENTS, PARTICIPATION IN TENDERS

4

TEXT

In foreign trade sale of goods through agents is widely practised and is becoming more and more popular from year to year. Agency firms operate finder agency agreements stating, the obligations of the agents and the prin­cipals. The range of the parties' services is stipulated in the agreements. In iome countries foreign trade operations can be carried out only through local agency firms. The agents and the principals establish contacts through Various channels.

"■ Trade by tenders has become a universally accepted practice. It is a com­petitive method of purchasing machinery, equipment and other goods as well as construction of enterprises including "turn-key" construction. Ten­ders are invited either privately or publicly for a number of prospective sup­pliers. Tendering involves the observance of a great number of formalities usually put forward by a tender committee. So tenders submitted through agents stand a better chance, as an experienced agent is not only in a posi­tion to inform his principal in good time and in every detail of the terms and dates of tender he might be interested in, but he can also provide him with information of the market conditions, prices, competitors, etc. Organiza­tions inviting tenders usually give preference to offers with favourable pay­ment terms often promoted by agents.

B.

Here is an example of an agency firm approaching a potential principal.

September 10, 20... Dear Sirs,

We owe your name and address to your representative at the Russian Embassy in our country and have pleasure in introducing ourselves as one of the leading import-export agency firms in this country. May we bring to your notice that we have the honour to represent as sole agents many world

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famous firms which made good «se of our services in various tenders. We therefore assure you that should you wish to¹ appoint us your agents our collaboration will be of mutual benefit.²

It has come to our knowledge that your products enjoy a high reputation and several projects all over the world have been constructed with your as­sistance to the satisfaction of all concerned.

As agents of many years' standing we have a thorough knowledge of the ... market and are of the opinion that your goods will have a good sale here ³ provided the prices are put on a competitive basis ⁴ and a publicity cam­paign advertising your goods and equipment is arranged properly.

We can undertake to obtain orders for the sale of your products as well as for carrying out design and survey work and distribute your equipment on a consignment basis.

You may be interested to know that we also give assistance in arranging participation in tenders invited in this country.

If such lines of cooperation are of interest to you, please let us know so that⁵ we can send our representative to Moscow to negotiate an Agency Agreement with you.

Looking forward to your favourable reply,

We remain,

Yours faithfully,

С

DISCUSSING THE AGENCY AGREEMENT

Tradeinvest considered the proposals of the agency firm and invited Mr N.

of... Co. Ltd. to come to Moscow to tackle all the problems.

Principal: Well, we've studied all your proposals, Mr N.. and can resume the discussions. I understand that now you are familiar with our range of activities, aren't you?

Agent: Yes, Mr S., you made it very clear to us during the previous negotia­tions. Besides, we've been in the business long enough to know how to satisfy our principals.

P. Very good, Mr N. Then there's actually one point we'll have to take up. That's the commission rate. As a matter of fact, the 5 % commission you ask us for strikes us as very high. The maximum we could agree to is3%.

A. I see, Mr S., but you ask us not only to obtain orders, but help you ex­ecute turn-key contracts if necessary. So, I think our profit won't be very high, in fact we may even suffer losses in the first year or so.⁶

P. Well, what exactly will the commission cover?

A. Expenses on obtaining orders, part of the publicity expenses, registra­tion charges, to say nothing of supervision for unloading, transporta­tion and storage of equipment under turn-key contracts. When all these are deducted, the balance won't be high, I assure you.

P. We still think the commission is very high. We are prepared to make our contribution.to the publicity campaign. We shall send you films ad­vertising our equipment and a working model of our project. We can also supply you with complete sets of advertizing literature on our goods. I'm confident that all this will enable you to cut your expenses.

A. That alters matters, Mr Smirnov. I've seen your advertising materials and I'm favourably impressed. Then I believe, 3 % will do.

P. Glad to hear that. I take it, we agree on a sliding scale commission with the maximum rate of 3 %, don't we?

A. Exactly so, the commission rate will depend on the contract volume and we would ask you to remit the commission to our Bank account in hard currency immediately after signing the contracts which we'll ob­tain for you.

$. I'm sorry to say we don't work on this basis. As a rule we grant our Customers the right to pay by instalments and we pay commission as soon as we receive payments from our Customers in the currency of payment.

A. In other words you suggest rather unfavourable terms, but we would be willing to accept them as cooperation with your company is of great interest to us.

P. Fine. Now, that we've come to terms about everything, we'll be able to sign an Agency Agreement, right?

A. Yes, I think so. I'll phone you when our Draft Agency Agreement is ready.

D.

January 3, 20... Dear Sirs,

We have pleasure in informing you that the Central Tender Committee on behalf of... has invited tenders for design work, supply of complete equip­ment and construction of an Aluminium Plant.

158

159

VOCABULARY LIST

WRITTEN PATTERNS

If you are interested in the project, will you please send us information about similar projects constructed with your assistance, including costs, date of commencement and completion, and scope of work.

Upon receipt of your favourable reply with all the required documents enclosed we shall register you to participate in this tender and obtain for you a complete set of Tender Documents. The expenses incurred will be charged to your account.

According to the information available the closing date for the submis­sion of tenders is the 1st of April, so the documents to be submitted should reach us at least two days before the closing date to enable us to arrange for their submission to the Central Tender Committee in due time.

Please be advised that an inspection of the construction site for tenderers is fixed for the 1st of March. We can assure you that you can count on our full cooperation.

Yours faithfully,

Tradeinvest completed the Tender Documents and forwarded them to the Tender Committee through the Agency firm. The Tender Committee compared the offers submitted by different firms and came to the conclu­sion that Tradeinvest offered most favourable terms and competitive prices, so the Contract was awarded to the company.

NOTES

1. should you wish to ... если вы захотите ...

2. will be of mutual benefit будет полезно для обеих сторон

3. Your goods will have a good Ваш товар будет здесь пользо-sale here ваться большим спросом

4. provided the prices are put при условии, что цены будут on a competitive basis конкурентоспособными

5. so that с тем чтобы; для того чтобы

6. in the first year or so год или около того (после подпи-

сания агентского соглашения)

agent п

participation п

tender(s) п

agency п

agency agreement

agency firm

prospective a

owe v

sole a

collaboration n

collaborate v

to be of the opinion

sale n

on (for) sale

provided conj

publicity n

campaign n

to arrange a publicity campaign

obtain v

distribute v

on (a) consignment basis

to invite (a) tender(s)

line of cooperation

tackle v

to be familiar with

range of activities

principal n

commission n

commission rate

maximum n

turn-key contract

to suffer losses

registration n

charges n

supervision (for) n

We owe your name and address to We have the honour to represent...

unloading n

deduct v

balance n

to make a contribution (to)

working model

advertising literature

cut v

alter v

sliding scale commission

remit v

hard currency

to grant the right

instalment n

to come to terms (about)

tender committee

commencement n

scope of work

upon receipt

register v

participate v

tender documents

to incur expenses

to charge to smb's account

available a

closing date

submission n

submit v

reach v

in due time

inspection n

tenderer n

fix о

to count on

forward v

award и

Мы получили наименование Ва­шей фирмы и адрес от ... Имеем честь представлять ...

160

161