国际商务英语课文-中英文对照.doc

第三课 地区经济一体化 REGIONAL ECONOMIC INTEGRATION The past decades witnessed growing importance of regional economic integration. To better enjoy the benefit of tree flow of goods, services, capital, labour and other resources, countries have signed various agreements to liberalize trade among themselves while possibly putting up barriers to economic activities with non-members. 过去几十年，地区经济一体化的作用越来越重要。为了更好地分享商品，服务、劳动力以及其他资源自由流动带来的好处，各国签署了各种协议，促进成员国贸易自由化。与此同时很可能设置和非成员国间经贸活动的壁垒。 Regional economic integration falls under four types given below in the order from least to most integrative:按照一体化程度的高低，地区经济一体化有以下四种形式 The first and loosest form is the free trade area. Members of a free trade area removes barriers to the flow of goods and services among themselves while each member still adopts its own policy as regards to trade with outsiders (non-members). In other words different members may have different tariff rates or quota restrictions. Consequently, non-member countries may take advantage of this situation and try to enter the market of the area from the member country with the lowest barrier before selling the goods to a member with a higher barrier. The most notable free trade area is the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the largest free market formed by the United States, Canada and Mexico in 1991 with over 360 million consumers and a total GDP of more than 6 trillion US dollars. 第一种形式是自由贸易区，一体化程度最低。自由贸易区成员扫除了成员间商品，服务自由流动的障碍，但同其他国家进行贸易活动时，各成员仍采用自己的贸易政策。换句话说，各成员的关税税率或配额限制可能不同。因此，非自由贸易区成员可以充分利用这一点，从贸易壁垒较低的成员国进入自由贸易区市场，再将货物卖给贸易壁垒较高的成员国。1991年，由美国，加拿大，墨西哥签订的北美自由贸易协定（NAFTA）形成了世界上最著名的最大的自由贸易区，拥有3亿6000万消费者，国内生产总值（GDP）共达6万多亿美元。 The second form is the Customs Union that goes a step further by adopting the same trade policy for all the members toward countries outside their organization in addition to abolishing (removing) trade barriers among themselves. Since imports from other countries are subject to the same tariff no matter which member they export to, it is imp