全国公共英语等级考试五级 g2(在线收听

  [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,
  [01:06.09]GATT stands for "the General Agreement on  Tariffs 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 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 negotiations 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 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 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 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 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 to slowdowns than the GATT system,
  [07:10.79]and it is expected that the implementation 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.

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