Free trade自由贸易

 

NB: Please note this is not a word for word transcript of the audio programme

Abigail:Discussions about free trade are often in the news, and they bring with them talk of summits and conferences, of tariffs (关税)and subsidies.（补助金，津贴）.. 

Earlier in the series we touched on trade agreements when we looked at the language of globalisation. That was before the World Trade Organisation talks in Cancun collapsed - we’ll look at the reasons why later.

But first - what is free trade - and does it actually exist anywhere? Andrew Walker is Economics and Business Correspondent at the BBC World Service, and if anyone knows it should be him:

Clip Andrew Walker

Well I suppose what people mean by free trade is the situation in which there is no government imposed（课征，征收税款）obstacle to trade between two or more countries. There is something like it in the European Union - tariffs have been abolished（废止，革除） for decades now and there are no quota restrictions.（比额限制） 

Abigail:So the European Union is an example of a group of countries where free trade exists. But that free movement of goods between countries - without government restrictions, or trade barriers - is very difficult to negotiate（商议，谈判）. Which is why we most often come across issues of free trade, when two countries are locked in dispute about it. The WTO seems to function as a kind of free-trade ‘court’, where member countries can take their complaints about trade with other member countries. Andrew Walker explains the WTO’s relationship with free trade:

 

Clip Andrew Walker

It's not right to say the WTO is about free trade but its big vision is freer trade. It’s more about managed, slightly restricted trade. If new barriers are imposed in way which breaches WTO rules, member countries can make a complaint to WTO - it’s a bit like a court and they come up with a ruling either dismissing or upholding the complaint. They might make them remove tariffs e.g. US steel: Bush put new higher tariffs on steel and EU complained to WTO - WTO said tariffs were inconsistent and US ought to remove them.

Abigail:So members can complain if other members break WTO rules. And those rules have been agreed on over a series of WTO conferences, like the one in Cancun in September. But the Cancun talks collapsed because of disagreements over what are known as the Singapore Issues - Andrew Walker explains why:

 

Clip Andrew Walker

Four issues. They're called that because they were discussed in Singapore in 1996. Most contentious（有异议的） is foreign investment - should WTO have rules allowing governments to limit foreign investment. EU is keen on rules constraining what govt can do and developing countries against it. I can’t see how they’ll resolve it. 

 

Clip Nick Ravenscroft

It actually costs only half as much to produce cotton here as in, say, America. But these African farmers simply can't match the artificially（人工的，人为的，不自然的） low Western prices and still turn a profit. So along with three neighbours, Mali has complained to the World Trade Organisation.

Abigail:BBC reporter Nick Ravenscroft reporting from Mali, which has brought a complaint before the WTO about US subsidies for cotton farmers. Economics and Business Correspondent Andrew Walker explains why subsidies and surpluses matter:

 

Clip Andrew Walker

EU has a system in which farmers are given EU subsidies for what they produce - makes up diff between agreed price and the price people are willing to pay - tops up farmers' incomes. One consequence has long been farmer have incentive（刺激，鼓励，动机）to produce more. How does EU deal with surpluses? One technique which enrages（激怒）many other countries is practice of selling surplus（过剩，盈余） on international market which drives down prices and makes difficult for farmers e.g. in Nigeria - they face lower price than they would have been able to get were it not for EU subsidies.

Abigail:And just as Mali has complained to the WTO about US agricultural subsidies, the US itself has made a complaint - against the European Union. This time the obstacle to free trade is a ban on imports. Andrew Walker explains:

 

Clip Andrew Walker

In addition to tariffs and quotas, other policies governments have that restrict imports; most obvious are environment and health - one example EU ban on imports of beef where cattle have been treated with growth promo hormones. They argue they can cause cancer. US say - not true and complained to WTO. WTO rules say you can ban if you have scientific evidence. WTO found EU didn’t have evidence, and ordered EU to remove ban. EU consumers feel strongly so EU politicians decided to keep ban. EU has recently said it does have new evidence and offered it to US and we’ll see how they respond.

Abigail:And if the WTO decides that a trade barrier is against WTO rules - what happens next? Well the WTO allows members to retaliate（报复，报仇） - to put up their own trade barriers. In the case we’ve just heard between the US and the EU

-the US has retaliated with a series of import tariffs on goods from Europe:

 

Clip Andrew Walker

WTO allows countries to take retaliatory measures if they don't get what they want. In the case of EU against US beef EU refused to comply with（服从，遵守） WTO ruling so US was given permission to impose tariffs on range of EU goods into US. US banned: cashmere（山羊绒）sweaters, pecorino cheese（意大利羊奶干酪）. Countries do it when they can but their own consumers pay. (本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)