雅思阅读材料盘点：关税对贸易的威胁

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　　DONALD TRUMP is hardly the first American president to slap unilateral tariffs on imports. Every inhabitant of the Oval Office since Jimmy Carter has imposed some kind of protectionist curbs(选词)on trade, often on steel. Nor will Mr Trump’s vow to put 25% tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminium by themselves wreck the economy: they account for 2% of last year’s $2.4trn of goods imports, or 0.2% of GDP. If this were the extent of Mr Trump’s protectionism, it would simply be an act of senseless self-harm. In fact, it is a potential disaster—both for America and for the world economy.

　　特朗普不是第一个单方面加征进口关税的美国总统。自卡特以来，椭圆办公室的每一任主人都实施过一些贸易保护主义措施，通常是针对钢铁行业。

　　As yet it is unclear exactly what Mr Trump will do. But the omens are bad. Unlike his predecessors, Mr Trump is a long-standing sceptic of free trade. He has sneered at the multilateral trading system, which he sees as a bad deal for America. His administration is chaotic, and Gary Cohn’s ominous decision on March 6th to resign as the president’s chief economic adviser deprives the White House of a rare free-trader, signaling that it has fallen into protectionist hands. Not since its inception at the end of the second world war has the global trading system faced such danger.

　　目前尚不清楚特朗普到底会做什么，但前景不妙。与历任美国总统不同，特朗普一直对自由贸易持怀疑态度。他对多边贸易体系嗤之以鼻，认为该体系令美国受到了不公正的待遇。他的政府混乱无序，而本月6日加里·科恩(Gary Cohn)又做出了一个让人感觉不妙的决定：辞去总统首席经济顾问一职。

　　Rough trade(贸易乱战)

　　This danger has several dimensions. One is the risk of tit-for-tat escalation. After the EU said it would retaliate with sanctions on American goods, including bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorbikes, Mr Trump threatened exports of European cars.

　　危险表现在几方面。一是以牙还牙的报复行动有升级的风险。在欧盟表示要对波本威士忌、哈雷摩托车等美国商品实施反制措施后，特朗普威胁要向欧盟出口的汽车征税。

　　The second danger springs from Mr Trump’s rationale. The tariffs are based on a little-used law that lets a president protect industry on grounds of national security. That excuse is self-evidently spurious. Most of America’s imports of steel come from Canada, the European Union, Mexico and South Korea, America’s allies. Canada and Mexico look set to be temporarily excluded—but only because Mr Trump wants leverage in his renegotiation of the North American Free-Trade Agreement, which has nothing to do with national security. Mr Trump is setting a precedent that other countries are sure to exploit to protect their own producers, just as spuriously.

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