VOA标准英语2011--Asia Pacific Leaders to Tackle Free Trade, Tariffs

Asia Pacific Leaders to Tackle Free Trade, Tariffs¹

 

Senior officials from 21 countries are meeting in Hawaii this week for the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum², or APEC. This year's host, President Barack Obama, will meet with other Asia-Pacific leaders Saturday and Sunday.

Security is in force in Honolulu, as 10,000 people gather for the summit, including national leaders, government ministers, business executives and reporters.

This year the United States hopes to expand trade and coordinate³ regulations in the Pacific region and announce a framework for the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership⁴, a Pacific free trade zone. It would be built on an existing trade agreement involving Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.

American negotiators are spearheading the effort to expand the partnership to include the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Peru and Vietnam. Japanese farmers and fishermen rallied Tuesday against the possible involvement by their nation after news reports said Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will soon announce that Japan will join the talks.

The United States is urging restrictions⁵ on subsidies⁶ to state-owned enterprises, which would have an impact on China, whose mixed economy is making the transition from state ownership to private enterprise. A Chinese official said this week that China has not been asked to join the free trade partnership.

Police officers patrol near the site of the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, November 8, 2011.

Political scientist Christopher McNally of the East-West Center says the U.S. Congress would probably not approve the agreement if China were included, at least for now. But Vietnam has joined the talks, and he notes that Vietnam is making the same transition. He says APEC is a good forum to reach limited agreements that involve only some of the member nations.

“It's a venue⁷ where leaders can get together to discuss facilitation of trade, investment and other economic issues within the Asia-Pacific. But, agreements that are binding⁸ tend to be forged at a smaller level because it's very difficult to get all 21 economies to agree on one issue,” noted⁹ McNally.

American officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, are asking APEC nations to reduce tariffs on environmentally sustainable goods and services, including wind turbines and solar power panels.

China has said the U.S. goals are too ambitious and are beyond the reach of developing countries. Analyst¹⁰ McNally says American trade agreements are more complex than China's and typically deal with issues other than trade.

“They also include environmental standards, they include labor¹¹ standards. The include also product standardization¹², things like that," said McNally.

He says Chinese agreements focus on such basic issues as reducing tariffs and quotas¹³ and harmonizing customs standards.

Both kinds of issues will be tackled in meetings at successively higher levels. President Obama will host the APEC leaders at a dinner Saturday, and the summit will wrap up with a meeting of the leaders Sunday.

1 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

2 forum   

n.论坛，讨论会

参考例句：

• They're holding a forum on new ways of teaching history.他们正在举行历史教学讨论会。
• The organisation would provide a forum where problems could be discussed.这个组织将提供一个可以讨论问题的平台。

3 coordinate   

adj.同等的，协调的；n.同等者；vt.协作，协调

参考例句：

• You must coordinate what you said with what you did.你必须使你的言行一致。
• Maybe we can coordinate the relation of them.或许我们可以调和他们之间的关系。

4 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

5 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

6 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

8 binding   

有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的

参考例句：

• The contract was not signed and has no binding force. 合同没有签署因而没有约束力。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding. 双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。

9 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

10 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

11 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

12 standardization   

n.标准化

参考例句：

• Standardization of counseling techniques is obviously impossible. 很清楚，要想使研讨方法标准化是不可能的。
• In Britain, progress towards standardization was much slower. 在英国，向标准化进展要迟缓得多。

13 quotas   

（正式限定的）定量( quota的名词复数 )； 定额； 指标； 摊派

参考例句：

• In fulfilling the production quotas, John made rings round all his fellow workers. 约翰完成生产定额大大超过他的同事们。
• Quotas of the means of production are allocated by the higher administrative bodies to the lower ones. 物资指标按隶属关系分配。