II. Using the dictionary of synonyms find the synonyms for the following words.

1) domestic industries, 2) be imposed, 3) to raise money, 4) impact on, 5) undercut, 6) incentive, 7) alter, 8) go bankrupt, 9) slow down, 10) well-being, 11) indivisible.

III. Match the words in column a with the appropriate words in column b.

A	B
1)to restrain	a)prices
2)transfer	b)to the bottom
3)to inflate	c)to changes
4)race	d)surplus
5)consumer	e)pricing
6) vulnerable	f)countries
7)to undercut	k) trade
8)purchasing
9)inferior
10)allied

IV. Complete the following sentences using the required information and the vocabulary from the article above.

1. Tariffs are usually associated with…

2. When shipments of goods arrive…

3. There are various types of tariffs…

4. Tax, tariff and trade rules in modern times are usually set together…

5. If a country's major industries lose to foreign competition…

6. A trade bloc is a group…

7. If a nation's standard of living or industrial regulations are too great…

8. Protective tariffs have historically been used as a measure...

9. According to libertarian economic theories…

10. The tariff has been used as a political tool to…

V. Using the vocabulary and the information from the article discuss with your partner your attitude to tariff. Is it a tool to establish an independent nation? Are tariffs a harmful interference with the individual freedom and the laws of the free market? Do you see the political impact of tariffs in a positive or in a negative sense?

TEXT B. TAX, TARRIF AND TRADE

1. Read the article and translate and find synonyms for the words and phrases in bold.

The tax, tariff and trade laws of a political region, state or trade bloc determine which form of consumption and production tend to be encouraged or discouraged. All three are often changed by a trade pact.

Typically all three types of laws must also be changed to implement any program of moral purchasing, fair trade, safe trade, or any tying of money supply to methods of measuring well-being. It is advocates of these measures that usually refer to tax, tariff, and trade policy as a single and indivisible anti-globalization movement, for instance, focuses on relationships between internal and external rules, and on the internal markets of a state, and what kinds of trade relations they create. They criticize inadequacy of existing rules, and argue that most of the so-called 'trade' rules are actually investment guarantees.

Critics of these movements and defenders of free trade and global investment liberalization respond that the older ideas of independent trade policy, investment policy and industrial policy assumed that a higher degree of control by governments over business was possible. Tariffs on marijuana were implied during the early 1900's but were then removed by the marijuana tax stamp in 1938, making it illegal.

While factions disagree on the changes and the direction of change, all agree that the newer ideas about unified tax, tariff and trade laws take globalization for granted, and assume that not only nation states but larger trade blocs and smaller regions and cities are in competitive positions relative to other players worldwide:

Tax policy to encourage or discourage particular types of consumption or production in the jurisdiction.

Tariffs, or lack thereof, to encourage or discourage imports or consumption inside the jurisdiction.

Trade, especially investment, policy to encourage or discourage location of particular types of activity in the jurisdiction, especially leading to export opportunities.

Despite some exceptions, in a global economy, policy on all three issues reduces to quantitative distinctions, and impact of change must be considered on all fronts at once. To avoid a "race to the bottom" as competing jurisdictions try to undercut pricing, trade bloc rules and trade pacts become more necessary, e.g. North American Free Trade Agreement, and political integration for common rule-making more desirable, e.g. as in the European Union (EU).

Critics of this process, notably in the safe trade, fair trade, and anti-globalization movements, argue that this is itself a race to the bottom, in standards and regulations. Protections typically afforded by the state to its own citizens can no longer be economically afforded in an environment where the state itself is in a competitive position in a global market.

One solution is the development of simultaneous policy initiatives, which would require trading partners to implement similar political, e.g. labor rights, measures all at the same time, so none were disadvantaged economically relative to its trading partners for implementing a measure that all of the partners deemed desirable.

The EU, has a particularly strong form of integration of the three, fixing the targets of taxation, ending most internal tariffs, and building a common West European trade bloc. Recently they also developed a common currency, the Euro, and are planning to implement some fair trade rules based on means of measuring well-being. In the process, however, they have retained a system of agricultural subsidy which keeps the EU self-sufficient in food. Some call this hypocrisy, others call it evidence that a program of liberalization has limits, and that food and water supplies are inherently tied to local interests and ecologies. Thus some subsidies, and agricultural policy, are not part of the same negotiations as lead to tax, tariff and trade rule changes. Monetary integration is also considered a separate issue, and indeed the Euro was not implemented until long after acceptance of tax, tariff, trade rules.