The Trade Protection Society Doctrine in the Crisis Comparisons to the Depression feature are in almost every discussion of

admin2013-04-03  41

问题             The Trade Protection Society Doctrine in the Crisis
    Comparisons to the Depression feature are in almost every discussion of the global economic crisis. In world trade, such parallels are especially chilling. Trade declined alarmingly in the early 1930s as global demand imploded, prices collapsed and governments embarked on a destructive, protectionist spiral of higher tariffs and retaliation.
    Trade is contracting again, at a rate unmatched in the post-war period. This week the WTO predicted that the volume of global merchandise trade would shrink by 9% this year. This will be the first fall in trade flows since 1982. Between 1990 and 2006 trade volumes grew by more than 6% a year, outstripping the growth rate of world output, which was about 3 % . Now the global economic machine has gone into reverse: output is declining and trade is tumbling at a faster pace. The turmoil has shaken commerce in goods of all sorts, bought and sold by rich and poor countries alike.
    It is too soon to talk of a new protectionist spiral. Nevertheless, errors of policy risk make a bad thing worse—despite politicians’ promises to keep markets open. When they met in November, the leaders of the G20 rich and emerging economies declared that they would eschew protectionism and will doubtless do so again when they meet on April 2nd. But this pledge has not been honoured. According to the World Bank, 17 members of the group have taken a total of 47 trade restricting steps since November.
    Modern protectionism is more subtle and varied than the 1930s version. In the Depression tariffs were the weapon of choice. America’s Smoot-Hawley act, passed in 1930, increased nearly 900 American import duties and provoked widespread retaliation from America’s trading partners. A few tariffs have been raised this time, but tighter licensing requirements, import bans and anti-dumping have also been used. Rich countries have included discriminatory procurement provisions in their fiscal-stimulus bills and offered subsidies to ailing national industries. These days, protectionism comes in 57 varieties.
    There are good reasons for thinking that the world has less to fear from protectionism than in the past. International agreements to limit tariffs, built over the post-war decades, are a safeguard against all-out tariff wars. The growth of global supply chains, which have bound national economies together tightly, have made it more difficult for governments to increase tariffs without harming producers in their own countries.
    But these defences may not be strong enough. Multilateral agreements provide little insurance against domestic subsidies, fiercer use of anti-dumping or the other forms of creeping protection.
From the text, we can infer all the following EXCEPT that______.

选项 A、to protect national interests, governments tend to take destructive, protectionist activities facing global economic crisis
B、the global economic crisis this time has put influence on all sorts of goods and both rich and poor countries
C、though leaders of the G20 promise not to take protectionism, most of them have turned out to break their promise
D、higher tariffs are not preferred this time than before because nations are determined not to take protectionism any longer

答案D

解析 推理判断题。本题需结合对全文的理解。本文的中心议题是“面对经济危机全球绝大多数国家所采取的不同形式的贸易保护主义”,由此可知[A]正确。根据文章第二段,尤其是最后一句可知[B]正确。根据第三段关于20国集团的叙述可知[C]正确。根据文章最后两段,尤其是倒数第二段可知,此次应对危机之所以不像以往那样过多地使用高关税是因为战后国际条约的制定主要是针对关税的,一个国家在提高关税的同时,自己的利益也将受损,所以。大家减少关税政策。而最后一段提到那些条约对于国内补助、反倾销等保护措施的采取是不具约束力的,所以[D]错误。因而,答案是[D]。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/NnsRFFFM
0

最新回复(0)