18. Discuss the activities of an exporting company and the reactions of the country importing products. How should the country protect its domestic industries?

There are several actions why governments try to control the imports and exports of a country. One reason is that wealth accrues to the exporting country, if it exports more than imports.

Some countries have special programs to encourage exports. They may be programs that provide marketing information, establish trade missions, subsidize exports, and provide tax benefits or incentives. Government subsidies allow companies to sell products cheaply. Sometimes these subsidized companies export their products and sell them cheaply overseas. This practice is known as dumping. It’s for removing competitor from the market. On the other hand, governments impose taxes and quotas to restrict [limit] imports of certain products. Sometimes governments want to protect a domestic industry because that industry provides employment for the population. Not only the industries, but also the labor unions encourage the government to enact [establish] protectionist controls.

Protectionist measures are in the form of duties [taxes] which eliminate the comparative advantage, or quotas which restrict the import of the product altogether. There are two forms of import tariffs: specific and ad valorem. A specific tariff is a certain amount of tax for each unit of the product, for example $500 for each automobile. An ad valorem tariff is based on the value of the product, for example 5% of its value. Thus, under an ad valorem tax a Rolls Royce imported to the United States would be taxed more than a Volkswagen. A tariff increases the price of the item, raises revenue for the government, and controls consumption through market forces. A quota has a different effect on the market because it limits the number of items imported. While under a quota there may be a higher price because of a limited supply; under a tariff it is the tax that creates a higher price: the supply is not limited.

19. The importance of computers. Your opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of using computers. The prospective ways of computer development.

There are as many applications for computers in business as there are business activities. They can be used in production to plan and coordinate materials movement, machine usage, and work schedules. In marketing and distribution they can be used to develop marketing strategies, process sales orders, arrange delivery schedules, and keep track of shipments on route. For managers a very important use of computers has to do with accounting and finance. Managers base many of their decisions on computer generated information.

Computers are high speed electronic machines which process data, and the use of computers is referred to as electronic data processing. Like most types of machines used in business, computers perform the time consuming and repetitive work which people find generally boring. They routinely perform operations in seconds that would require many worker hours.