Английский язык 3,5 года / Английский язык / Лариса Анато / 36

Раздел IV

Вариант 5

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The Trade of Great Britain

1. International trade has always been important to Britain but its importance has increased markedly in recent years. Exports of goods and services now account for nearly a third of gross domestic product, compared with almost a fifth some 30 years ago; imports have shown a broadly similar trend as proportions of home demand.

The fifth largest trading nation in the world, Britain provides just over 9 per cent of the main manufacturing countries' exports of manufactured goods. The country is a major supplier of aeropace products, motor vehicles, electrical equipment, chemicals, textiles and most types of machinery, and is a growing oil exporter. It relies upon imports for about two-fifths of total consumption of foodstuffs and for most of the raw materials required by industry.

2. Manufactured goods account for about three- quarters of exports of goods (accounting to trade statistics); a feature is the shift towards finished, rather than semi-finished, goods. The most important group is machinery and transport

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Контрольные задания

equipment (34 per cent of exports in 1980). The share of fuels rose from 4 per cent of exports in 1975 to 14 per cent in 1980 when, for the first time, exports of North Sea oil exceeded imports of crude oil.

3. An increasing proportion on trade has been with other European Community member countries. They account for six of the top ten export markets, taking 43 per cent of British exports in 1980, and for six of the ten leading suppliers of goods to Britain. Britain's largest single export market was the Federal Republic of Germany and the largest single supplier of imports was the United States.

4. Long an advocate of the removal of artificial trading barriers, Britain has taken a leading part in the activities of such organizations as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the International Monetary Fund, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. The European Community's common customs tariff, which Britain applies, is, on average, at a similar level to the tariffs of other major industrial countries. Britain maintains few restrictions on its international trade. Most goods may be imported freely and only a narrow range of goods is subject to export control.

5. Invisible trade (which includes payments and receipts for services such as shipping, travel and civil aviation, insurance and interest, profits and dividents arising out of overseas investment, and transfers between Britain and other countries) is of

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