第11课易货贸易仍在使用外刊经贸知识选读-每课重要知识点-串讲-课文翻译.doc

第11课 易货贸易仍在使用
The Comeback of International Barter
国际易货贸易的回潮
一、（Excerpts）（摘录）
It is a primitive, inefficient and expensive way of doing business—but the massive debts of developing and the world’s oversupply of goods make it inescapable.
它是一种原始、低效且昂贵的贸易方式，但发展中国家的巨额债务和全球过剩的供给，使它不可避免地存在着。
In 1983 the Saudi Arabian government decided to purchase ten Boeing 747-300s powered by 40 Rolls-Royce jet engines. But faced with declining revenues due to a worldwide surplus of oil, it was reluctant to pay $1 billion in cash. Instead, it offered crude oil. Neither the American aircraft manufacturer nor the British engine-maker wanted all that oil. But opportunities for such a big sale are rare. So the companies have arranged for an international financial institution to sell the Saudi crude on world markets. Boeing and Rolls-Royce will be paid in cash from the proceeds, and Saudi Arabia will get its aircraft without dipping into its currency reserves.
1983 年，沙特阿拉伯政府决定购买 10 架波音 747-300 飞机，并且由 40 架罗尔斯——罗伊斯公司的引擎提供动力。但是面对全球石油过剩造成的收入下降，沙特政府不愿意支付 10 亿美元的现金。取而代之，沙特提出要用原油来支付。美国飞机制造商和英国引擎制造商都不想收下全部的原油。然而，像这样大笔买卖的机会是少有的。于是他们安排了一家国际金融机构在世界市场上销售沙特的原油。波音和罗尔斯公司将从售油收人中获取现金，而沙特也将得到飞机而不至动用自己的货币储备。
To secure sales of its F-5 jet fighter to the Swiss government, the Northrop Corporation of the United States agreed to help the Swiss expand export markets for $200 million worth of goods. Northrop located a purchaser for Swiss elevators in Egypt, and steered the Swiss to a cement plant construction project in Indonesia. Over five years some 200 Swiss companies benefited from Northrop’s assistance.
为了把自己的F-5喷气式战斗机卖给瑞士政府，美国诺思罗普公司同意帮助瑞士扩展价值2亿美元的出口市场。他们在埃及为瑞士电梯找到了一个买主，又在印度尼西亚指导瑞士从事一个水泥厂的建设。5年间，大约有200家瑞士公司受益于诺思罗普公司的援助。
In a hot contest the United States’ General Electric Trading Co. won a contract for a $ 150 million turbine project in Romania—largely because in agreed to receive and market Romanian products of equivalent value. General Electric was able to use some Romanian steel products, and developed marketing programs to sell additional materials to the Middle and Far East.
在一场激烈的竞争中，美国通用电器贸易公司赢得了罗马尼亚的一项价值1亿5千万美元的涡轮机工程合同——主要因为通用同意接受并销售罗马尼亚等价值的产品。通用电器公司可以使用一些罗马尼亚的钢铁制品，并且开发一些营销计划把多余的材料销往中东和远东。
Economists at the U.S. Department of Commerce estimate that up to 20 per cent of trade between nations is now subject to some form of countertrade—an outgrowth of the ancient practice of barter.
美国商业部的经济学家估计，目前高达20％的国家间贸易要遭遇某种形式的对等贸易——古代以货易货的一种发展。
Barter endured for thousands of years as the primary means of trade. Colonial powers forced bilateral barter upon their client states, making the colonies take expensive manufactured goods in return for bargain-price raw materials, and prohibiting them from trading with other nations. International trade was supposed to be freed from bartering’s constraints in July 1944, when diplomats and economists attending the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, hammered out agreements that led to the creation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and regulation of the worldwide currency exchange system.
Kantor周一对欧洲政府采购案迅速做出回应，这显示了信任政府的耐心可能会小于前任政府。
Commerce among nations a modern era; the constrained trading between imperial powers and their colonies began to break down.World markets opened to all countries, and multilateral trade flourished.Generally a country could sell its goods in the best market it could find, and buy what is needed from the least expensive supplier.Moreover, since currencies were convertible, most transactions could be completed with cash.Barter was as antiquated as the horse-soldier.Or so it seemed.
从此，国家间贸易进入了现代时期；帝国主义列强和其殖民地国家间的强制性贸易开始瓦解崩溃。世界市场向所有国家开放，多边贸易繁荣兴旺起来。通常一个国家可以把自己的商品出售给能够找到的最好的市场，并且从最便宜的供应商处购进自己需要的东西。此外，因为货币可以兑换，大多数的交易可以用现金完成。易货贸易变得像骑兵一样古老。或许，好象如此。
During the past few years, however, the international monetary system has begun to strain under a variety of economic changes.One important cause is the enormous burden of debt carried by Third World countries, today estimated at $ 800 billion.“The plain fact is that many countries are broken,” say David Yoffie, assistant professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business Administration.
然而，在过去的几年里，国际货币制度开始在各种经济变革中承受巨大压力。一个重要原因是第三世界国家承担的巨额债务，据估计目前有8千亿美元。哈佛大学工商管理研究生院的副教授大卫·约非说：“显而易见，许多国家都要破产了。”
Nations with serious debt problems, such as Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, have been compelled to devote almost all their export earnings to debt service, leaving themselves with virtually no surplus to pay for imports.With barter, however, debtor nations can continue to import goods while, in effect, concealing export earnings from creditors.
像墨西哥、巴西、阿根廷这样有严重负债问题的国家都已被迫把自己几乎所有的出口收入用来支付欠款利息，实际上没有给自己留下剩余资金支付进口物品。然而，通过易货贸易，负债国可以继续进口货物，同时把自己的出口所得隐藏起来，不让债权国知道。
But countertrade is not the exclusive province of debtor nations.Says Yoffie, “Even countries with strong foreign exchange positions, such as Australia, Canada and Indonesia, are insisting on countertrade in certain areas.Linking imports and exports is a way to exert power over multinational corporations.Countries that lack expertise in international marketing try to use countertrade as leverage to tap the networks of global firms.”
但是，对等贸易并不是债务国所独有的。约非说：“即使像澳大利亚、加拿大和印度尼西亚这样外汇地位强健的国家也坚持在某些领域从事对等贸易。把进口和出口联系起来是一种对跨国公司施加权力的途径。缺乏国际营销专业知识的国家试图用对等贸易作为杠杆来推动跨国公司的内部市场网络。”
Nations also use countertrade as a camouflaged means of subsidizing exports.For instance, if a Middle Eastern country wanted to increase its oil exports, says Yoffie, it could simply lower its price.Such a move would, however, weaken the cartel.But if a country sells its oil at the OPEC list price, and in an interconnected deal quietly arranges to pay a premium for imported goods, both parties in the transaction benefit—at the expense, of course, of other oil producers.Up to a quarter of all OPEC oil transactions today have some kind of countertrade provisions attached.
有些国家还把对等贸易当成补充出口的一种伪装手段。约非说，例如，如果一个中东国家想增加其石油出口，它可以简单地降低油价。然而，这一举动会削弱卡特尔联合企业。但是如果一个国家按欧佩克的挂牌价销售石油，同时在一笔相关交易中，悄悄安排加价购买进口产品，结果交易双方都会从中获益－—当然，是以牺牲其他石油出产国的利益为代价。现在欧佩克的石油交易中有四分之一都带有某种对等贸易的条款。
Barter in its traditional form—the direct exchange of goods of equivalent value—is relatively rare.Its modern variants:
传统形式的易货贸易—同等价值商品的直接交换，相对罕见。其现代变体有：
ØCounter purchase usually involves a supplier selling goods or services and in return ordering unrelated products, which essentially offsets the buyer’s costs.For example, when McDonnell Douglas sold civilian aircraft to Yugoslavia in the 1960s, it agreed to purchase goods from that country—including hams that were then served in the company’s cafeteria—and to market Yugoslavizn products in the United States.The firm also encouraged its employees to vacation it Yugoslavia; the tourist dollars spent served to offset the company’s countertrade obligations.
回购通常指供应商销售货物或服务的同时订购不相关产品作为回报，这样基本上抵消了买方的成本。比如，60年代，麦道公司出售民用飞机给南斯拉夫的时候，同意从南购买货物—包括当时供应给自家餐厅的火腿。同时，还同意在美国销售南斯拉夫产品。麦道还鼓励其员工到南度假；旅游者花费的美元用来抵消该公司对等贸易的债务。
ØCompensation Agreements are often undertaken to win contracts for the construction of manufacturing plants.When Levi Strauss sold a blue jeans factory to Hungary, the American company agreed to market approximately 500,000 jeans per year in East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia.
补偿贸易协定是指为了赢得建设工厂的合同所签订的协议。美国利瓦伊一斯特劳斯公司把一个牛仔裤厂卖给匈牙利时，他同意每年在东德、波兰和捷克斯洛伐克销售大约该厂的50万条牛仔裤。
ØClearing Agreements tend to be bilateral pacts between governments, an exchange of products to meet an agreed-upon value of trade.Large volumes of Western goods reach Russia through a clearing arrangement between the Soviet Union and India.Because India needs to export more to the Soviet Union to balance its imports, it has opened the door for some western firms that otherwise might not be able to sell to the U.S.S.R.
清算协定往往是政府间签订的双边条约是一种为了达到商定的贸易额所做的产品交换。通过前苏联和印度间的清算协议，大量的西方货品流入苏俄。因为印度需要向前苏联增加出口来平衡进口，所以它向一些西方公司敞开大门，这些公司否则不太可能销售其产品到前苏联。
Britain’s Rank Xerox, for example, found it difficult to sell photocopiers to the Soviet Union because Moscow was unwilling to part with hard currency.But by opening a joint venture copier assembly plant in India, which sends the copiers to the U.S.S.R.through the clearing agreement, Rank Xerox has reached its market.
例如，英国的兰克施乐公司发现他们很难向前苏联出售复印机，因为莫斯科不愿意花掉硬通货。但是通过在印度建立合资的复印机装配厂，根据英印间的清算协定，就可以把复印机卖给前苏联，这样，兰克施乐公司到达了它的市场。
U.S.government officials worry that the explosive growth in countertrade will weaken the world trading system.By concealing the real prices and costs of transactions, says one U.S.trade representative, the various forms of barter may conceal and help perpetuate economic inefficiencies in the marketplace.
美国政府官员担心，对等贸易的爆炸性增长会削弱世界贸易体系。美国的贸易代表说，通过隐瞒交易的实际价格和成本，各式各样的易货贸易可能会掩盖市场中的经济低效并助其长期存在。
Barter can also be risky business.“Many companies,” says David Yoffie, “suffer losses because they’re stuck with products of poor quality of with the wrong specifications.”
易货贸易还可能是有风险的生意。大卫·约非说，“许多公司因为换到手中的产品质量差或规格不对而陷入困境，遭受损失。”
The structuring of countertrading deals is often Byzantine.In 1982 Chrysler Corp.set out to sell trucks to credit-starved Jamaica.To pull the deal off, the two sides arranged for the American and Canadian mining companies that dig Jamaica’s bauxite and refine it into alumina to hand over about 50,000 tons of the refined product to the Jamaican government’s Bauxite & Alumina Trading Co.
对等贸易的结构通常错综复杂。1982年，克莱斯勒公司打算向出现信用危机的牙买加销售卡车。为了做成生意，双方安排美国和加拿大的矿业公司开采并冶炼牙买加的铝土，然后把5万吨左右的精炼后的矾土交给牙买加政府的铝矾土贸易公司。
The trading company exported the alumina to Metallgesellschaft AG, a German metals company.Metallgesellschaft AG then sold the alumina to a refiner, which converted it into aluminum.The money the metal company got for the alumina went to Chrysler’s bankers, the European American Bank.The bank paid part of the money to Jamaica’s Bauxite & Alumina Trading Co.
该贸易公司又将矾土出口给一个德国金属公司，Metallgesellschaft AG。 Metallgesellschaft AG然后又把该矾土卖给一个炼制业者，由他把矾土炼制成铝。金属公司出售矾土所得收人划到克莱斯勒的往来银行账户上，即欧美银行。这家银行付一部分钱给牙买加的铝矾土贸易公司。
The balance financed a letter of credit made out to Chrysler, which subsequently shipped trucks to Jamaica.Another government firm on the island took title, and sold the vehicles to a local Chrysler distributor.The mining companies got paid for their alumina and the Jamaican public finally got an opportunity to buy American trucks, to which they might not have otherwise had access.
余额部分用来给克莱斯勒公司开了一张信用证，随后把卡车运到了牙买加。岛上的另一家政府公司获得这些卡车的所有权，并把它们卖给克莱斯勒当地的经销商。这样，矿业公司最后售出矾土并得到报酬，牙买加的人民也终于有了机会购买原本可能无法得到的美国卡车。
International trade by barter is, in fact, an inefficient and expensive means of doing business compared to trading with money.Observes David Yoffie, “To cover the additional costs it incurs in handling goods it is forced to take in countertrade, a multinational company simply boosts the price of the goods it sells.” Yoffie sees countertrade as a form of protectionism.“It can help one group and hurt another,” he says.
与货币贸易相比，通过以货易货进行国际贸易实际上是一种低效且昂贵的贸易方式。《大卫·约非观察》评论说，“为了支付对等贸易中由不可避免的装运造成的额外成本，跨国公司干脆提高产品的价格。”约非把对等贸易看成是贸易保护主义的一种形式。
On the other hand, Daniel Cecchin, director of Countertrade Services for Bank America World Trade Corp., asserts that the rise of countertrade provides practical solutions to the debt problems of the international monetary system.
相反，美洲银行世界贸易公司对等贸易事物部主任丹尼尔·切奇坚持，对等贸易的兴起为解决国际货币制度中的债务问题提供了实际的解决办法。
--From Reader’s Digest.August, 1985
——选自1985年8月《读者文摘》
二、Words and Expressions
barter n.易货贸易
primitive a.原始的
Saudi Arabian 沙特阿拉伯
crude (oil) a.原油
proceed n.收入
dip (into) v.动用（款项等）
secure v.弄到；得到
locate v.找到
steer v.指导；指点
contest n.竞赛（尤指竞技者各自献技由裁判择优的）
turbine n.涡轮机
equivalent a.相等的
the U.S.department of commer 美国商务部
countertrade n.对等贸易；反向贸易
outgrowth n.分支；副产品
endure v.持续
primary a.首要；主要
client state 附属国
bargain n.低廉bargain-price（用作定语）
prohibit v.禁止
prohibit sb.from doing sth. 禁止某人做某事
constraint n.约束；限制
Bretton Woods 布雷顿森林（美国一地名）
New Hampshire （美国）新罕布什尔州
hammer (out) v.设计出
constrained a.强制的；被约束的
break down 崩溃
convertible a.可兑换的

antiquated n.陈旧的；过时的
horse-soldier 骑马
train v.承受巨大的压力
plain a.简单的
broke a.（俚语）[作表语用]破产的
debt service 利息付款(=interest payment)
virtually ad.实际上
debtor n.债务人
creditor n.债权人
province n.（活动）范围
exert n.专门知识
leverage n.杠杆机构
tap v.着手利用
camouflaged a.伪装的
subsidize v.补贴
cartel n.卡特尔；联合企业
premium n.加价
provision(s) n.条款
variant n.变体；变形
essentially ad.基本上
cafeteria n.自助食堂
undertake v.接受；同意
jeans n.牛仔服装
clearing n.清算
tend (to) v.易于；往往会
pact n.条约
part (with) v.花掉
perpetuate v.使长存；保持
stuck (with) 缠住；陷入困境（stick的过去分词）
Byzantine a.错综复杂的
set out 打算
Jamaica n.牙买加
pull v.努力实现
bauxite n.铝土
alumina n.矾土（氧化铝）
aluminum n.铝
finance v.供资金给
title n.所有权
take title 取得所有权
distributor n.经销商
access n.机会
cover v.支付
incur v.招致
assert v.断言
三、重点词语解释
1.proceeds: earnings
2.steered: introduced
3.convertible: exchangeable
4.antiquated: old-fashioned
5.tap: choose
6.camouflaged: disguised
7.perpetuate: make everlasting
8.access: opportunity
四、英汉互译短语
1、barter: 易货贸易
2.convertible: 可兑换货币
3.debt service: 偿还贷款
4.countertrade: 对等贸易
5.counterpruchase: 反向购买
6.debtor nations: 债务国
7.creditor nations: 债权国
1.国际金融机构：the international financial institution
2.货币储存：currency reserves
3.国际货币基金：the International Monetary Fund
4.货币交换：currency exchange
5.多边贸易：multilateral trade
6.清算协定：Clearing Agreements
7.补偿协定：Compensation Agreements
五、重点语句
1.Boeing and Rolls-Royce will be paid in cash from the proceeds …
2.To secure sales of its F-5 jet fighter to the Swiss government, …
3.Northrop located a purchaser for Swiss elevators in Egypt and steered the Swiss to a cement plant construction project in Indonesia.
4.Over five years some 200 Swiss companies benefited from Northrop’s assistance.
5.a hot contest
6.Romanian products of equivalent value
7.… up to 20 per cent of trade between nations is now subject to some form of countertrade …
8.the primary means of trade
9.bargain-price raw materials
10.… multilateral trade flourished.
11.… currencies were convertible.
12.… many countries are broke …
13.debt service
14.debtor nations
15.cerditors
16.expertise in international marketing
17.to tap the networks of global firms
18.the OPEC list price
19.at the expense, of course, of other oil producers
20.Counterpurchase usually involves a supplier selling goods or services and in return ordering unrelated products, which essentially offsets the buyer’s costs.
21.Because India needs to export more to the Soviet Union to balance its imports, …
22.with the wrong specifications
23.The balance financed a letter of credit made out to Chryslcr, …
24.Another government firm on the island took title …
六、课文重点难点段落翻译
1.Economists at the U.S.Department of Commerce estimate that up to 20 percent of trade between nations is now subject to some form of countertrade—an outgrowth of the ancient practice of barter.
美国商务部的经济学家们估计，现在高达20%的国际贸易属于某种形式的反向贸易——古代易货贸易的副产品。
2.Commerce among nations entered a m