Active Vocabulary

Unit 5.gLOBAL ECONOMY AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE

TEXT A:Globalization TEXT B:International Trade TEXT C: BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE: Complaints. Replies to complains GRAMMAR: Verbals. Infinitive and gerund

"Globalization is a fact of life.

But I believe we have underestimated its fragility."

Kofi Atta Annan (a Ghanaian diplomat, the seventh

Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997 – 2006)

LEAD-IN

1. What images spring to mind when you hear the word ‘globalization’?

2. How has globalization affected your life?How would your life be different if globalization hadn’t happened?

3. Is globalization good for the world?

4. Do you think it’s possible to ignore globalization?

5. What has your country contributed to globalization?

6. What will globalization look like fifty years from now?Do you think globalization will make us all the same in the future?

PRE-TEXT EXERCISES

Ex.1. Read the words in the groups bellow. Pay attention to the word stress.

a) words with the stress on the first syllable:

export (noun),tidal,barrier,inward, vastly,commerce (noun),feature,issue, constitute, exploit (noun), primary,

b) words with the stress on the second syllable:

export (verb),precise, religious,prevailing,investment, technology,proponent, opponent, migration, protection, avoidance, negotiate, renewable, arrangements,exploit (verb), recipient, pollution;

c) polysyllabic words with the main and secondary stress:

globalization, integration, interdependence, international, multinational, specialization, competition,controversial,environmental

Active Vocabulary

Key terms: globalization, economic globalization, integration,interdependence,international trade, investment, proponents and opponents of globalization,multinational corporations, export markets, specialization of production, economies of scale,increased competition, inward investment, labour migration, protection,outsourcing,tax avoidance. Other words and expressions:commonplace, tidal wave, on a worldwide basis, likewise, outbreak, cross-border trade, vastly, to negotiate, reductions in barriers, arrangements, in particular, controversial issue, standards of living, to claim, unfettered, at the expense of, resistance to, to take shape, to constitute, pros and cons, increased efficiency, to exploit, recipient countries, primary products, scope for economic growth, environmental costs, renewable resources, pollution, global warming.

Text A: GLOBALIZATION

People around the globe are more connected to each other than ever before. Information and money flow more quickly than ever. Goods and services produced in one part of the world are increasingly available in all parts of the world. International travel is more frequent and international communication is commonplace. Globalization is an economic tidal wave that is sweeping over the world.

Globalization - the 'big idea' of the late twentieth century - lacks precise definition.According to Oxford Dictionary of Economics,globalization, in a general sense, is “the increasing worldwide integration of economic, cultural, political, religious, and social systems. Economic globalization is the process by which the whole world becomes a single market. This means that goods and services, capital, and labour are traded on a worldwide basis, and information and the results of research flow readily between countries”. In other words, economic globalization isthe process of increasing integration and interdependence of different national economies.

Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, people—and, later, corporations—have been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact, many of the features of the current wave of globalization are similar to those prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

But policy and technological developments of the past few decades have increased cross-border trade, investment, and migration so large that many observers believe the world has entered a qualitatively new phase in its economic development.

In the years since the Second World War many governments have adopted free-market economic systems, vastly increasing their own productive potential and creating new opportunities for international trade and investment. Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to commerce and have established international agreements to promote trade in goods, services, and investment. Taking advantage of new opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built foreign factories and established production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners. A defining feature of globalization, therefore, is an international industrial and financial business structure.

Technology has been the other principal driver of globalization. Advances in information technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life.

Globalization is a complex and controversial issue. Proponents of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living, while opponents of globalization claim that the creation of an unfettered international free market has benefited multinational corporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people. Resistance to globalization has therefore taken shape both at a popular and at a governmental level as people and governments try to manage the flow of capital, labor, goods, and ideas that constitute the current wave of globalization.

But before drawing any conclusions, let’s consider some of the general pros and cons of globalization.