VII. Decipher the following abbreviations denoting some of the most important international institutions:

ABBREVIATION	EXPANSION
IBRD
IDA
IFC
MIGA
ICSID
CTF
CAI
ECLA
ICJ
INTELSAT
ITU
IULA
NEAFC
NIEO
OAS

VIII. Give the English equivalents:

Світовий банк; група Світового банку ; Міжнародний банк реконструкції та розвитку; Міжнародна асоціація розвитку ; кредитування розвинутих країн; інфляційний тиск; падіння темпів зростання ВВП; приріст ВВП поточного року; виділення позики; підтримка банківського сектора; криза на тлі глибокої рецесії; посилення впевненості у банківській системі; засідання ради директорів банку; прозорий процес ре-капіталізації банків; покращення законодавства у галузі фінансів та банківської діяльності; підтримка фонду гарантування вкладів.

IX. Translate into English:

1. Світовий Банк є однією з найбільших у світі організацій, що надають допомогу з метою розвитку.

2. Банк здійснює свою діяльність, надаючи фінансову й консультаційну допомогу з метою підвищення рівня життя.

3. Він розробляє стратегії допомоги для кожної зі своїх країн-клієнтів у співробітництві з державними органами, неурядовими організаціями й приватним сектором.

4. До Світового банку входять дві інституції – Міжнародний банк реконструкції та розвитку i Міжнародна асоціація розвитку.

5. Однією з цілей Світового банку є заохочення інвестування країн – членів в інші країни, особливо y такі, що розвиваються.

6. Видаючи кредити, проводячи консультації з питань економічної політики й надаючи технічну допомогу, Світовий банк сприяє реалізації y країнах широкого кола програм, метою яких є скорочення бідності.

7. Завданням глобальної боротьби з бідністю є надання людям в усьому світі шансу поліпшити своє життя та життя своїх дітей.

8. Найбільш пріоритетними завданнями перед Банком є забезпечення стійкого соціального розвитку, розвиток людського потенціалу й підвищення ефективності керування економікою.

9. Банк використовує свої фінансові ресурси, висококваліфікований персонал і велику базу знань для надання допомоги країнам, що розвиваються, у процесі забезпечення стабільного розвитку, заснованого на принципах соціальної справедливості.

10. Пріоритетним напрямом співробітництва України зі Світовим банком ,до якого вона вступила 1992 року, стає одержання коштів на інвестиційні проекти; це надасть країні більш відчутного імпульсу для розвитку економіки.

X. Discuss the following:

1. China Has Become a Global Economic Player without Western Financial Institutions.

2. World Bank Funding: Benefit or Burden?

Unit 7

Regional Trade Organization: North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Read the text and decide whether the sentences are true or false:

Today, nations all over the globe enter regional trade agreements, for obvious reasons: the larger a trading area, the more consumers. Countries can benefit from their economies of scale and/or lower their costs of production if they build partnerships with neighbors. Common markets can make industries and merchants richer and more efficient in the face of global competition. And countries can depend on a steady stream of commodities, products, or services that they themselves do not supply within their borders. This is especially true for products for which demand is inelastic; that is, consumers need these commodities regardless of how much they cost, because substitutes are hard to come by, costly, or missing altogether (oil or gas are good examples).

NAFTA is the largest free trade area worldwide in sheer economic output. In force since January 1994, the agreement has served mainly to eliminate tariffs, to promote fair competition among its three members-Canada, Mexico, and the United States-and to massively boost trade compared to other regional organizations, especially its rival the EU. In 2004, Costa Rica agreed to join the United States and four other Central American nations in a new regional free trade pact that might eventually expand NAFTA throughout the Western Hemisphere. NAFTA’s other objectives are to increase foreign direct investment and to protect intellectual property rights.

NAFTA’s framers deliberately avoided supranational rules. The three member states implement the laws and policies of their agreement through various intergovernmental commissions, including the NAFTA secretariat and the Commission for Labor Cooperation (CLC).The overarching NAFTA body, the Free Trade Commission (FTC), oversees the work of other committees, monitors implementation, and attempts to resolve disputes. It is made up of the trade ministers of the three members, so each commissioner is also a member of his or her national bureaucracy. But the treaty’s implementation is left to each other member state: a national NAFTA secretariat in each country is headed by a secretary responsible for managing it. NAFTA spells out no specific appointment or removal procedures-neither for cabinet-level representatives on the FTC nor for officials at the national secretariats. Since these appointments are up to the member states, this gives them much leeway in how exactly each wants to honor the agreement.

The original NAFTA treaty sought to take citizen concerns into consideration by providing for public discussion in the CLC and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC). But in practice these commissions have been lax if not worse. In its first seven years the CLC received a total of twenty-three complaints-fourteen against Mexico, seven against the Unites States ,and two against Canada-barely three complaints a year. And the International Labor Rights Fund found the CLC’s labor agreement to be “wholly inadequate” for the complex issues of cross-border labor regulation. Similarly, environmental groups have attacked the CEC for being a lame duck or serving corporate interests.

NAFTA created various commissions to improve transparency. In addition to the CLC and the CEC, the three NAFTA countries each set up a national administrative office as a point of contact and information for their respective government agencies and for government outsiders on activities of their NAFTA secretariats. The national secretariats also keep some records of panel, tribunal, and commission meetings-both at their offices and online.

NAFTA was formed as a vehicle to facilitate trade between three nations in North America. The few organizations it spawned are composed of members of national bureaucracies that serve directly under their executive branches. Only the dispute panels enjoy some independence, but not much: the member governments, through their NAFTA secretariats, control the list of eligible panelists. Needless to say, funding for the dispute panels is completely government-sponsored. Once chosen, these arbitrators have some autonomy, but their tenure lasts for one case only.

Since there are no public records of negotiations or decisions, NAFTA is vulnerable to capture by bureaucratic or business interests. The real fear among NAFTA opponents is that the agreement has given business an institutionalized advantage over environmentalists and labor. And business has a privileged position in the advisory panels that formulate many of the details of NAFTA implementation. Business interests and government interests often converge, especially when governments have neo-liberal economic agendas. To say the obvious: this is not good for independence of the organization.

1. Today, nations all over the world enter regional trade agreements.______

2. NAFTA is one of the largest free trade area worldwide in sheer economic output.______

3. The agreement has served mainly to eliminate trade barriers._____

4. NAFTA’s framers intentionally avoided supranational rules.______

5. The three member states implement the regulations through various international commissions._____

6. The overarching NAFTA body oversees the work of other committees, monitors implementation, and attempts to resolve disputes._____

7. It is made up of finance ministers of the three members._____

8. The original NAFTA treaty sought to take citizen concerns into consideration by providing for public discussion in the CLC and CEC._____

9. NAFTA created various commissions to eliminate corruption.____

10. The three NAFTA countries each set up a national administrative office as a point of contact and information for their respective governments agencies._____

Choose the most suitable word and fill in the gaps:

1. Common markets can make industries richer and more efficient in the face of global ____________.

a) warming

b) integration

c) competition

d) industrialization

2. NAFTA was formed as a vehicle to __________ trade between three nations in North America.

a) eliminate

b) eradicate

c) facilitate

d) frustrate

3. NAFTA is vulnerable to capture by __________ interests.

a) bureaucratic or business

b) trade or business

c) political or economic

d) agricultural or cultural

4. A national NAFTA secretariat in each country is headed by a (n) _______ responsible for managing the treaty’s implementation.

a) officer

b) trader

c) commissioner

d) secretary

5. NAFTA’s framers avoided __________ rules.

a) international

b) cosmopolitan

c) supranational

d) regional

Exercises and Tasks

1. Complete the text with the following words: halt, deficit, globe, implement, leeway, promote, benefit, property, stream, markets.

1. Common __________ can make industries richer and more efficient.

2. Nations all over the _________ enter regional trade agreements.

3. Countries can __________ from their economies.

4. They can depend on a steady __________ of commodities, products, or services that they themselves do not supply within their borders.

5. The agreement has served to __________ fair competition among its three members.

6. NAFTA’s other objectives are to increase foreign direct investment and to protect intellectual ___________ rights.

7. The member states __________ the laws of the agreement through commissions.

8. Since the appointments are up to the member states, this gives them much ________ in how each wants to honor the agreement.

9. Since its inception, critics of NAFTA have stepped up their efforts to ________ what they feel are the failures of free trade.

10. Among them: job losses, environmental degradation and a burgeoning trade ________.