全国公共英语等级考试五级 g2

　　[00:00.00]You will hear a talk about World Trade Organization.

[00:05.09]As you listen,you must answer Questions 35--44

[00:11.76]by writing NO MORE THAN THREE words in the space provided on the right.

[00:19.30]You will hear the talk TWICE.

[00:23.54]You now have 60 seconds to read Questions 25--44.

[00:30.77]As you probably know,the World Trade Organization,

[00:36.83]which is generally referred to as WTO,

[00:42.19]was established on January 1,1995.

[00:48.54]Its offices are located in Geneva.

[00:53.08]In order to understand the functions of WTO better,

[00:58.64]we should also learn something about GATT,the WTO's predecessor 1,

[01:06.09]GATT stands for "the General Agreement on  Tariffs 3 and Trade."

[01:13.25]It was established on a provisional basis after the Second World War,

[01:20.01]following the establishment of other institutions

[01:25.05]dedicated to international economic cooperation

[01:30.80]--such as those now known as the World Bank

[01:35.56]and the International Monetary 4 Fund.

[01:40.21]The original 23 GATT countries

[01:44.96]were among over 50 which agreed to a draft Charter

[01:51.31]for an International Trade Organization.

[01:56.35]It was a new,specialized agencyof the United Nations.

[02:02.91]The Charter of the ITO

[02:07.45]was intended to provide not only world trade disciplines,

[02:13.90]but also contained rules relating to employment,

[02:20.07]commodity agreements,restrictive business practices,

[02:26.52]international investment and services.

[02:31.17]In an effort to give a boost to trade liberalization

[02:36.92]after the Second World War and to begin to correct protectionist measures

[02:44.08]that remained in place from the early 1930s,

[02:49.61]tariff 2 negotiations 5 were opened among the 23 founding

[02:56.07]ITO "contracting parties" in 1946.

[03:02.91]This first round of negotiations resulted in 45,000

[03:10.25]tariff concessions 6 affecting $ 10 billion of world trade.

[03:17.72]It was then about 10% of the world trade.

[03:23.15]It was agreed that these concessions should be protected by early acceptance

[03:31.12]of some of the trade rules in the draft ITO Charter

[03:36.97]These tariff concessions and rules

[03:41.52]came to be known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade,

[03:48.18]and came into force January 1948.

[03:54.32]Although the full ITO Charter

[03:59.28]was agreed to at a UN Conference on Trade and Employment

[04:05.34]in Havana in March 1948,

[04:10.78]ratification 7 in national legislatures proved to be impossible in some cases.

[04:19.42]When the US government announced in 1950

[04:25.06]that it would not seek congressional ratification of the Havana Charter,

[04:32.51]the concept of the International Trade Organization

[04:38.86]was effectively finished.

[04:42.80]Despite its provisional nature,the GATT remained,

[04:48.76]and it became the only instrument governing international trade

[04:55.50]from 1948 to the establishment of the WTO.

[05:02.26]Throughout the period,further efforts to reduce tariffs,

[05:07.91]improve international trade

[05:12.06]and move closer to an international trade body continued;

[05:18.33]the negotiations took place in a series of eight "trade rounds,"

[05:25.28]some of which took several years to reach agreement.

[05:30.74]The final round (Uruguay) concluded with the Marrakesh Agreement,

[05:37.97]signed April 15,1994,

[05:43.64]which established the World Trade Organization as of January 1,1995.

[05:53.10]Now you may wonder how GATT differs from WTO.

[05:59.63]First of all,GATT was a set of rules;the WTO is an institution.

[06:08.27]Secondly,GATT was conceived of as a provisional measure,

[06:14.83]while WTO is a permanent commitment for its participant

[06:21.28]Also,GATT rules applied 8 to trade in manufactured goods,

[06:28.02]but the WTO covers manufactured good,

[06:33.38]services and trade related aspects of intellectual property.

[06:39.93]What is more,GATT was a patchwork 9 of agreements

[06:45.29]among various members of the trading community;

[06:50.64]the WTO applies to every partner in the membership.

[06:57.20]Finally,WTO dispute settlement system

[07:03.84]is faster and less susceptible 10 to slowdowns than the GATT system,

[07:10.79]and it is expected that the implementation 11 of WTO dispute rulings

[07:18.41]will be more easily achieved.

[07:22.96]Although the WTO came into existence January 1,1995,

[07:31.21]the GATT of 1947 continued to exist until the end of December 1995

[07:40.36]in order to give GATT member countries time to join the WTO

[07:48.01]and ensure an orderly transfer between the institutions of GATT and WTO.

[07:56.47]GATT 1994,the updated rules of the old GATT

[08:03.32]are enshrined in the WTO Agreement,

[08:08.28]principally in the areas of international trade in goods,

[08:14.32]Out of a potential membership of 152 countries and territories,

[08:21.68]76 governments became members of the WTO on its first day.

[08:30.04]By October 1996,123 governments had accepted the Marrakesh Agreement

[08:39.68]and membership in the WTO.

[08:44.64]Not only does the WTO have a potentially larger membership than GATT

[08:51.98]which had 128 by the end of 1994,

[08:58.44]it also has a much broader scope in terms of the commercial activity

[09:05.38]and trade policies to which it applies.

[09:09.93]As noted,the GATT applied only to trade in merchandise goods;

[09:17.09]The WTO covers trade in good,

[09:22.23]services and"trade in ideas" or intellectual property.

[09:29.08]Some people describe the WTO as the "free-trade" institution.

[09:36.24]They are wrong,because the WTO permits tariffs and,

[09:42.79]in limited circumstances,other forms of protection.

[09:48.93]It is more accurate to say that it is a system of rules

[09:54.68]dedicated to open,fair and undistorted competition.

[10:02.23]Previous GATT rules,

[10:05.78]which laid down the basis on which governments could impose

[10:11.42]compensating duties on these two forms of 'unfair competition,

[10:18.08]were extended and clarified in WTO agreements.

[10:24.82]Now you are going to hear the talk a second time.

[10:31.46]You now have 100 seconds to check your answers to Questions 35--44.