Английский язык. Практический курс для решения бизнес-задач

Supporters of free trade point out that free trade leads to a more efficient allocation of resources, with all countries involved in the trade benefiting from lower prices, higher employment and output.

Libertarians say higher degrees of political and economic freedom produce higher levels of material wealth.

Advocates of globalization say that statistics strongly support globalization:

The percentage of people in developing countries living below US$1 per day has halved in only 20 years.

Life expectancy has almost doubled in the developing world since WWII and is starting to close the gap to the developed world where the improvement has been smaller. Child mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world. Income inequality for the world as a whole is diminishing.

Democracy has increased dramatically from almost no nation with universal suffrage in 1900 to 62.5% of all nations in 2000.

Between 1950 and 1999, global literacy increased from 52% to 81%.

There are similar trends for electricity, cars, radios, and phones per capita.

Measurement of Globalization

To what extent a nation-state or culture is globalized in a particular year has until most recently been measured employing simple proxies like flows of trade, migration, or FDI. A more sophisticated approach to measuring globalization is the recent index calculated by the Swiss think tank KOF. The index measures the three main dimensions of globalization: economic, social, and political. In addition to three indices measuring these dimensions, an overall index of globalization and sub-indices referring to actual economic flows, economic restrictions, data on personal contact, data on information flows, and data on cultural proximity is calculated. According to the index, the world’s most globalized country is the USA, followed by Canada, the United Kingdom, and France. The least globalized countries according to the KOF-index are Burundi, Belize, and Sierra Leone.

Source: Wikepidia

Essential Vocabulary

1. medium n – средство, способ

2. trade liberalization – либерализация торговли

3. free trade – свободная торговля

4. «global village» – «глобальная деревня»

5. protectionism n – протекционизм

protectionist a – протекционистский

6. refugee n – беженец

7. сurrency market – валютный рынок

8. сommodity market

– товарный рынок

9. сross-border transaction – международная операция

10. diffusion n – распространение

diffuse v – распространять

11. multinational company (MNC) – многонациональная компания (МНК)

12. tailor v – зд. подгонять под конкретные нужды

13. circumvention n – обман, хитрость, обход

circumvent v – обмануть, обойти, перехитрить, расстроить (планы)

14. protective tariff – протекционистский тариф

15. specie n – золотые и серебряные монеты или слитки

16. auspices n.,pl – эгида, покровительство

17. General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) – Генеральное соглашение о тарифах и торговле (ГАТТ)

18. Uruguay Round – Уругвайский раунд

19. World Trade Organization (WTO) – Всемирная торговая организация

20. Maastricht Treaty – Маастрихтский договор

21. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – Североамериканское соглашение о свободной торговле

22. Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) – Организация стран – экспортеров нефти (ОПЕК)

23. copyright law – закон об авторских правах

24. free-trade zone – зона свободной торговли

25. capital control – контроль движения капитала

26. bailout n

– спасение, выручка

bail out v – спасать, выручать

27. life expectancy – продолжительность жизни

28. mortality n – смертность

mortal a – смертный; смертельный

29. suffrage n – право голоса, избирательное право, голос (при голосовании)

30.literacy n – грамотность

literate a – грамотный

31. think tank – «мозговой танк»

Exercise 1. Answer the following questions.

1. What does globalization mean in general? 2. What aspeсts does the economic globalization include? 3. What does globalization mean in management terms? 4. What are the key milestones in the history of globalization? 5. What economic trends are connected with globalization? 6. What initiatives contributed to the partial removal of barriers to international trade? 7. What are the arguments of the opponents to globalization? 8. What statistical data do advocates of globalization use to support their views? 9. How is globalization measured?